Recently, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office received a donated vest from Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. for its police dog, Skye. The ballistic and stab-protective vest will help keep Skye safe while performing patrol duties.
Deputy Weinandy is Skye’s partner. He says Vested Interest has a strong reputation in the K9 law enforcement community.
“Vested Interest is a well-known nonprofit organization,” says Weinandy. “In my training groups and through my training process, it was recommended to apply with them. They supply dogs all over the United States and I believe just in this application process there were 66 canines that were receiving vests through their organization.”
Weinandy says the added protection helps ensure she can keep both officers and the public safe, whether responding to crime or searching for someone who is missing.
“She’s dual purpose, she does narcotics so she can search for narcotics on a vehicle, in a building, in a package or luggage or something like that,” says Weinandy. “And then she is also trained as a patrol dog. So, she’s trained to protect me, trained to track a missing suspect or a missing person, an elderly or a child that went missing, we could track them down.”
Skye has already started wearing the vest and doesn’t need any special training to use it. Weinandy says she’s simply adjusting to the added equipment, just as a human would when first wearing protective gear.
The donation was made possible through the sponsorship of Don and Misty Fike of Galesburg, Illinois.
