LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Having dogs in law enforcement isn’t a new concept, but departments are now incorporating therapy dogs to their team.
Luke, a labradoodle, is the newest member of the Jeffersontown Police Department. Victim Service Specialist and Luke’s main handler, Stacie Jones, said Luke is the department’s first therapy dog.
“Yes, we’re going on our second a week here at the department, and he is adjusting really well and everyone’s adjusting to him and just loving on him, just loving it,” said Jones.
Luke will work nearly 40 hours a week. According to Officer Paul Hieb, Luke is already making a big impact.
“I appreciate having a canine therapy dog like Luke at the department, because after making calls for service all day and dealing with crime and chaos, which no humans meant to do every single day, he’s a good stress relief for that,” said Hieb.
Officer Hieb said this past week he lost his rescue dog to cancer.
“Nobody knew that. My dog passed away on Saturday from cancer. And, just I didn’t want to come to work, but I did, because it’s what we do every day. But, yeah, now being able to come here and have Luke, that’s the kind of resources that we need as police, not just to humanize us, but because we are humans. And I’m thankful that we got Luke,” said Hieb.
Luke was gifted to the department by Dogs Helping Heroes and the Bill Young Memorial Foundation. Major Brian Foreman said the staff and community have already accepted Luke as family.
“We’ve got a lot of community support for Luke. We’ve already had people offering to buy supplies for him and all kinds of things like this. So there’s really no downfall. You know, to having a service animal like this, a therapy animal. he’s done a lot of great things for us,” said Foreman.
According to the American Heart Association, dogs help people to lower their blood pressure and many are less likely to develop heart disease. Jones said the department puts a lot of emphasis on mental health and well-being of their employees.
“If there’s been a, incident and someone just needs some love and you can say, give love, and he’ll jump up in your lap and just put his body weight on you, put pressure on you. And that research shows that calms people down, lowers their blood pressure,” said Jones.
Jones said Luke is just another tool they have to help support their officers and civilian staff. Luke will be fully trained in April and he will start supporting crime victims. Luke has already made a big impact and they are hoping to add additional therapy dogs in the future.
