Hey kids, Sarnia’s new police dog needs a name

Local elementary schoolers are being asked to help Sarnia police name their first new police dog in nearly three decades.

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Sarnia Police Service is re-establishing a local team with a trained dog and police officer handler after going without one since the late 1990s.

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Const. Shawn Urban has been appointed handler of the new police dog, to be selected in early April, said Insp. Michael Van Sickle.

Sarnia police invited local children, ages 4 to 14, to submit names for the dog by April 2 by e-mail at [email protected].

Names should be one or two syllables so they are recognizable by the dog, and “aligned with (city police) values,” a release said.

“In the first 24 hours, I received just over 75 suggestions,” said police spokesperson Marika Sylvain Groendyk.

“We all think it’s important to involve community youth whenever we can and this is a great opportunity to do that,” she said.

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Urban will be among those selecting the name, to be announced April 15.

Van Sickle said Sarnia is working with the Windsor police to select a dog and train the new team.

“We’re going to rely on Windsor’s expertise in the dog selection,” he said. “The dog itself will be a breed out of Eastern Europe,” imported to the US via a Pennsylvania broker.

“We’ll head down there in April,” with Windsor police representatives, who also are selecting dogs, Van Sickle said.

Sarnia’s police dog will be one to two years old, he said. “It’s likely going to be a German shepherd, but a Belgian Malinois is also an acceptable breed within the policy that we’ve drafted.”

Sarnia’s police budget this year included funding to reinstate a dog team after 27 years. Currently, Sarnia relies on the OPP when a police dog is needed.

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“Over the past several months, extensive preparatory work has gone into creating this new team,” Chief Derek Davis said in a release. “We are very excited to now be in the final stages of . . . delivering on this priority community expectation.”

Sarnia’s “dual-purpose” dog will be suitable for apprehension and search efforts, Van Sickle said.

The dog team’s duties are expected to include finding evidence, clearing buildings, tracking suspects, searching for vulnerable people, and protecting officers in dangerous situations.

Finding the right officer to ensure the team’s success was a complex process, Van Sickle said.

“We’re extremely pleased with our selection (of Urban who) has been with the service for a long time,” he said. “He has an exceptional policing career and a reputation within the community.”

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Urban will continue regular patrol duties, but will respond to calls where the dog is needed, Van Sickle said. He will also house and care for the dog round-the-clock.

“It is a lifestyle change,” Van Sickle said. “It’s a lifetime partnership. . . On duty, it’s with him. Off duty, it’s at his residence.”

After the dog is chosen, the team will train for 15 weeks with Windsor police training partners and is expected to be operational by late summer, he said. After that, the team will undergo “intense and ongoing” regular training.

Over the last year, Sarnia police noted about 100 incidents when a local dog team could have been used, Van Sickle said. But the only requested an OPP dog team’s about a dozen times, “because of the complexities surrounding getting it on scene.”

“We always evaluate, is it a ‘nice to have’ or a ‘must have,’ ” when deciding when to make a request to the OPP, he said.

Having a city police dog unit means it can be deployed quickly and more often when needed, Van Sickle said.

“It would say the vast majority of police services our size” have dog units, he said. Some smaller Ontario police services, like Woodstock’s, also have teams.

Because there are limits on how many hours a dog team can work, adding a second dog “is something that we’re going to want to evaluate in short order,” Van Sickle said.

[email protected]

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