DATE OF RELEASE: July 1, 2015
On Friday, June 26, 2015 and Saturday, June 27, 2015, the West Covina Police Department’s K9 Teams attended and competed in the 2015 Bakersfield K9 Trials held at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, CA. The three K9 Teams of Officer Matt Bowman and his partner “Rec”, Officer Bryan Rodriguez and his partner “Reiko” and Officer Jesse Miller and his partner “Rocky” were part of the 42 statewide Police K9 Teams that participated in the competition.
The K9 Trials included scenarios such as narcotics detection, explosives detection, article search, obedience, agility, building searches, area searches and protection work. During the 2-day event, a panel of Judges scored the performance of the K9s in each category.
On Saturday evening, trophies were awarded to those K9s Teams with the highest scores. In the end, each of the 3 WCPD K9 Teams took home awards. They are:
Officer Matt Bowman and Rec: TOP DOG AWARD OVERALL
Officer Bryan Rodriguez and Reiko: 1st Place in Patrol Protection
Officer Jesse Miller and Rocky: 4th Place Overall Best
This was the first time the WCPD K9 Teams have competed at the Bakersfield K9 Trials. Although each of them won an award, we are especially proud that this was done even though our Officers have less than 2 years’ experience as a K9 Handler. Officer Rodriguez has the most time on with 19 months, Officer Bowman has 8 months and Officer Miller has 5 months. The results from the K9 Trials is a tribute to the dedication each of our K9 Officers have with the training and working relationship with their K9 partners.
The Friends of WCPD K9s (www.friendsofwcpdk9s.org), a non-profit group which raises funds to help support the department’s K9 Program paid the registration, room and board fees for the three Officers and their K9s competing in the event.
The Bakersfield K9 Trials is an annual event which is open to the public. The funds raised will benefit the Disabled Children’s Fund.
* * Photo of Officer Bowman with his K9 Rec jumping over an obstacle courtesy of The Bakersfield Californian Newspaper. * *
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Information released by:
West Covina Police Department
Public Information Officer Rudy Lopez
1444 West Garvey Avenue
West Covina, CA 91790
626 939-8500
Web: www.wcpd.org
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