Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

In CT, or atleast the East Coast, how much does a K9 cost for a small department?

Here is a scenario;

Let's say that someone is coming into a somewhat large sum of money in say...oh, a year or so.

Said person wants to donate to a local PD. Person knows that there are many small local departments that are in need of K9's and can not afford them.

Roughly, how much does buying and training a k9 cost?

This person is doing this anon. The only people who will know the identity of the donor is the Chief of the department who gets the donation. And me. :D

Any info would be great.

Oh, and it is not me...but a friend of mine who was helped greatly by a PD, and wants a way to thank the police for what they do.

Funny that you ask...

A few years ago someone approached my PD and offered to purchase a K9, all the equipment for a cruiser to transport the K9 and the initial training for the officer.

The city turned it down because of the cost of the on-going training and overtime from being called in while off duty for K9 services.

As for your question, I don't know;)

Canine programs can be expensive to start. Once started, they can continue at a reasonable price. Let's just look at the dog itself. Depending on where you might buy one you can figure anywhere from 6 to 15 thousand dollars. As always, when you do buy, it's a buyer beware situation. For a small department that does not already have a canine program, it becomes even more critical. I would suggest, before buying a dog they check with larger departments or your state police and see if they have established programs. They would certainly help a smaller one avoid the pitfalls. Getting the dog is only part of the equation. The handler needs trained and you need the equipment to support a dog. In the beginning that too is expensive. 1,500 or so for a container, an existing police car, leashes, collars, food, vet bills, annual vet care etc all have to be figured into the program. In addition to that, you have to have regular scheduled inservice training. The "industry standard" according to several of the certification agencies is about 16 hours a month. Generally this is on-duty time to save overtime costs. On top of that you have canine care and maintenance which runs from 30 to 60 minutes a day. Depending on the department. That time must be compensated. Whether it's off time, comp time or pay. As you can see, it's difficult to just say, give me 25 grand and you'll have a program. It takes preperation and an understand of what all is involved in both the training, proficiency training and upkeep of the dog.

DFrost

Canine programs can be expensive to start. Once started, they can continue at a reasonable price. Let's just look at the dog itself. Depending on where you might buy one you can figure anywhere from 6 to 15 thousand dollars. As always, when you do buy, it's a buyer beware situation. For a small department that does not already have a canine program, it becomes even more critical. I would suggest, before buying a dog they check with larger departments or your state police and see if they have established programs. They would certainly help a smaller one avoid the pitfalls. Getting the dog is only part of the equation. The handler needs trained and you need the equipment to support a dog. In the beginning that too is expensive. 1,500 or so for a container, an existing police car, leashes, collars, food, vet bills, annual vet care etc all have to be figured into the program. In addition to that, you have to have regular scheduled inservice training. The "industry standard" according to several of the certification agencies is about 16 hours a month. Generally this is on-duty time to save overtime costs. On top of that you have canine care and maintenance which runs from 30 to 60 minutes a day. Depending on the department. That time must be compensated. Whether it's off time, comp time or pay. As you can see, it's difficult to just say, give me 25 grand and you'll have a program. It takes preperation and an understand of what all is involved in both the training, proficiency training and upkeep of the dog.

DFrost

Thank you for the answer. My friend is looking into a local department that is trying to get start up funding for a k9 program, that is one avenue that may be traveled down.

Another one, is a department that already has one k9, but is asking for another, apparently, this is a high drug trafficing area, and they always have to wait to borrow a k9 from the state police. I don't know, sounds moronic to me that this particular area does not have what it needs to function...

I will keep you updated as things progress.

Thanks again.

The average I've been told of is around $8,000 for just the trained dog. But more training for the officer and extra equipment is going to compound that.

Single purpose detection dog should run about 6,000-8,000. Dual purpose patrol/detection will run you closer to 10,000. Used to be that all our dogs were home grown and trained. It has been a while since I was a dog handler, however food and vet bills are usually reasonable costs. The kicker is the overtime that you have to pay the handler for K-9 maintenance (taking care of dog off-duty). Usually about 3 hours a week is what we got. That can run up the costs.

When I did it and the current K-9 handler are considered full time K-9. We did/do not usually respond to others calls. However we training a little bit almost every night. I guess thats why when we competed in police games we always took, gold, silver and bronze.

One of the biggest issues is training time. There was a saying that it is hard to train a patrol dog but easy to keep him working (bite motivation). Detection dogs on the other hand are easier to train but harder to keep working. Additionally, it takes several years for a handler to really come proficient at his task.

Not trying to discourage the program, but they are expensive and time consuming. Additionally, other officers have a tendency to get jealous over special units.

Not too long ago, my department had five K-9 units. We're now down to just one because the administration can't justify the expense if that tells you anything.