New Castle PD hopes event helps Canine Corps stay put
Achill - New Castle K-9
That training is fun stuff for him. It’s like a game. But Achill, a nearly 5-year-old, four-legged member of the New Castle Police Department’s Canine Corps, is a serious tool for the two-legged members of the department. They use him and two other shepherds, Vader and Bronco, to sniff out narcotics, bombs, suspects and missing people.
BITE OUT OF CRIME: Achill works on his compression bite with New Castle police Officer Anthony Mangino. The dog is one of three shepherds in the police department’s Canine Corps. A bike run Saturday will benefit the unit.
OFFICER’S BEST FRIEND: Sgt. John Colella is Achill’s partner.
A bike run is scheduled for Saturday.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — He has everything the well-dressed cop needs, such as a badge and a bulletproof vest.
He’s kinda cute, too, with his big brown eyes — and that tail that wags furiously when he enthusiastically chomps down on the arm of a fellow officer who, fortunately, is wearing a bite sleeve.
That training is fun stuff for him. It’s like a game. But Achill, a nearly 5-year-old, four-legged member of the New Castle Police Department’s Canine Corps, is a serious tool for the two-legged members of the department. They use him and two other shepherd dogs, Vader and Bronco, to sniff out narcotics, bombs, suspects and missing people.
The department is hoping, said New Castle Police Chief Tom Sansone, to be able to keep the dogs in light of the city’s financial situation — it’s distressed under Pa. Act 47, and the state is controlling the purse strings.
Some people in the community agree that the dogs would be a real loss for the city. A bike run, called Paws for Peace, will take place Saturday to benefit the unit.
NewCastle hadn’t had a canine team since the 1970s, said Sansone. But the city revived the unit, starting with a dog named Chuck, in 2003.
Chuck, now retired, lives with his former handler, Sgt. John Colella.
Achill lives with Colella, too. While Chuck, 12, enjoys his golden years, Achill and Colella go to work patrolling in the city.
The dogs are, said Colella, a valuable asset when it comes to police work.
“On the street, people don’t run,” he said. “Bringing a dog out, you can settle a situation down. They fear the dog more than the manpower.”
Achill has some feathers in his collar when it comes to good work for the department.
Once, Sansone said, he sniffed out $150,000 in drug money under a trap door in a house that had already been searched by police. Traces of drugs were on the money, and no human nose would have picked up that scent.
Seized drug money, Sansone pointed out, benefits the prosecutor’s office and the police department.
Colella remembered a domestic situation in Taylor Township only a few weeks into Achill’s service for the department.
“The guy had run into the woods,” Colella said. “He wasn’t moving. The dog found him right away.”
The dogs are good for public relations, too, Sansone said. They visit with school and youth groups.
Bronco’s appearance at the city’s recent Fireworks Festival was a success. “The kids were all grabbing him and pulling his hair,” said Sansone, though Colella said the dogs aren’t as patient and as accepting of the attention as a pet dog would be. He said he can tell that after so long, Achill would rather be done with the socializing.
Vader was actually hurt several weeks ago during a demonstration before a church youth group — seizing up and dropping straight to the ground in pain while going for the bite sleeve.
He’ll be out of service for a while, recovering from a sprained neck.
Sansone said the dogs are not expensive to keep once they are acquired and trained for $6,000 to $8,000 apiece. The K-9 cruisers can be expensive to maintain, he said, because they have to run constantly while the dogs are in them.
Wal-Mart donates dog food, and a local veterinarian donates his services — though the department will get a bill for the sprained neck from Ohio State University’s hospital at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Sansone said, though, that he had to convince the state that the unit was not an unnecessary expense for the city.
Contributions such as those gathered through the bike run, he said, are important because the state is not as likely to want to disband the unit if donations help support it.
The bike run will begin with registrations at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Scottish Rite Cathedral, 110 E. Lincoln Ave.
Starting at 11 a.m., it will wind its way through four counties before ending up at Cascade Park for a lunch and a meet-and-greet with the dogs — at least Bronco and Achill. Vader might still be recovering, said Sansone.
Registration costs $20 for one rider and $30 for two riders.
Registration is also available at www.newcastlepawsforpeace.bravehost.com, or call (724) 714-2776.