Police dog fired for being too tame

I feel bad for the officer who had him... that's going to be heartbreaking.

I understand the force needs a "tuffy" but the officer should be able to decide if "titus" can stay in his care or not. If "titus" was to weak for that force whos to say hes not to weak for another force

It's tough all over, especially those without thumbs; however, I'm sure with his schooling he will land on his paws somewheres.

take care Titus

Don't send that dog to Michigan, we have enough unemployed folks here. How about Sanfransico? I hear they like nibblers (not biters) there.

Thanks for sharing your concerns.

As the Chief of Police in Sequim, WA, I can tell the recent news articles entitled:‘Titus Losing His Job as Sequim Police K-9’,‘Police dog Titus not tough enough for Sequim’, and other variations have hit a nerve.

Sequim, WA is a small city of 6,000 residents and a service population of about 23,000 that is located about 60 miles to the NW of Seattle on the Olympic Peninsula.

The Sequim Police Department completed a 5-year strategic plan in 2006, that document is available on-line at: www.ci.sequim.wa.us If we follow our Strategic Plan which was developed with a lot of input including the involvement of our K-9 Handlers, the agency will migrate to a generalist patrol dog unit. That is of course is tided to a projected increase in call load, necessity and as local resources allow.

The 'surplus' designation is merely a legal hoop the police department has to jump through in order to have the legal ability to transfer ownership of Titus to another law enforcement. Please recognize that every member of the Sequim Police Department considers Titus to be much more than the legal definition of property or surplus might entail - he is a member of our Department and like some police officers who lateral or move to another department or retire, we are committed to doing the right thing for Titus and on his behalf.

The Sequim Police Department is not going to dump Titus anywhere, as some inaccurate news stories have suggested. The department is committed to carefully evaluating the best option for Titus.

Traditionally when the Sequim police 'surplus' or retire a K-9 the agency would go through this same process of 'surplusing' the K-9 by the City Council and then allowing the handler to take custody of the dog – in essence, retirement.

Merely transferring Titus to another officer like our School Resource Officer is not practical because we would still need to meet the K-9 Handler training requirements to field the dog on duty.

For the immediate future K-9 'Titus' will continue to work the streets of Sequim, to learn more about our K-9 Program please visit our web site at: www.ci.sequim.wa.us/police .

Thanks again for taking the time to learn more about our agency!

Robert Spinks, MA, MS
Chief of Police
Sequim (WA) Police Department

that was pretty neat that they took the time to do that.

I wonder if someone from here wrote to him.

Thank you Chief Spinks, for taking the time to clarify this.

uhm, i, too, am a samantha potter from grand rapids, mi.

weiirrd.
ha just thought id share.

Bri Bri 73 wrote:

that was pretty neat that they took the time to do that.
I wonder if someone from here wrote to him.

I was thinking the same thing. Sequim sounds like a nice place to live