Muncie officers to host K-9 fundraiser

K-9 Carlos and his handler, Officer Wells pose for a photo in the Muncie Police Department 2017 calendar. Muncie Police Calendar Facebook, Photo Courtesy
K-9 Carlos and his handler, Officer Wells pose for a photo in the Muncie Police Department 2017 calendar. Muncie Police Calendar Facebook, Photo Courtesy

The Muncie Police Department will host a K-9 fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at City Hall. 

The department began a large fundraising effort in order to bring the total number of K-9 officers to six. The department had two K-9s when the fundraising efforts started. 

Since then, one dog was purchased through donations stemming from fundraising efforts and another was donated to the department from an Indianapolis woman.  

RELATED: Indianapolis local donates K-9 to Muncie Police Department

“The average cost per dog is about $10,000,” said Officer Chase Winkle.  “That’s getting it with about a year to a year-and-a-half of training at the kennel. And then once we get it, we do incur about another $5,000 cost to get the dog and the handler trained together.” 

On Friday, Muncie residents will have the opportunity to donate to the fund while picking an officer to receive a shock from a taser. 

Donators will be able to place their donation in the bucket of the officer they want to receive the shock. At the end of the donation period, the officer with the most money in their bucket will take the taser at 2 p.m. in the City Hall parking lot. 

Participants can choose between Investigator Jami Brown, Capt. Steve Cox, Sgt. Chris Kirby, Sgt. Daxton Lovell and Officer Chase Winkle.

The department stressed that although the taser will cause officers some discomfort, it is a safe tool and is a normal part of law enforcement training. Sgt. Kirby said that the discomfort won’t bother him at all if it means the department gets a new K-9. 

“If we had more dogs on the street, we could stop all crime,” Kirby said. “If it caused me five seconds of mental pain, then that’s what I gotta do. I take ownership in our police department and I believe that those K-9s on the street would make for definite improvement.” 

The department will also be fundraising at Dogtoberfest on Oct. 21 at Canan Commons from 2-6 p.m.

Contact Andrew Smith with comments at ajsmith15@bsu.edu or on Twitter at @AndrewSmithNews.

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