Officer Gengler & Argo
Photo by Tom Keyes
Protective
On the morning of Saturday, October 16th, Wal-Mart and their Associates, in their continuing generosity, presented Officer Gengler and K-9 Officer Argo with an extremely generous $2000.00 check. These funds will be used to pay for a protective bulletproof vest for Argo. Mike Strumskas, head of community involvement for Wal-Mart, presented the check this Saturday on behalf of Wal-Mart's Safe Heroes program.
The
Cromwell Police Department in partnership with Wal-Mart,
held a child identification day immediately following the presentation. Officer Gengler handed out and explained child identification packs. These packs are designed to help identify children if they are ever missing. The packs have areas for a recent photo, hair samples, dental records, diagrams for descriptive markings on the child, and fingerprinting. Officer Gengler aided parents by fingerprinting the children and explaining the packets. Parents are encouraged to keep this type of information on children in case their child ever becomes missing it will aid police in locating their child.
THE K-9 UNIT
The Cromwell police K-9 Unit has been on the road since January 2004. This is the first K-9 unit in the history of the Cromwell police. This Unit was established due to the growing number of needs for K-9 type calls in the Town of Cromwell. It is also available to assist the surrounding towns and the Capital Regional Emergency Team (C.R.E.S.T.), upon request.
The K-9 program has been supported by the associates at Cromwell Wal-Mart since the beginning. They generously provide food and supplies for Argo, as well as generous funds for a bulletproof vest and some training equipment. They even made Argo an official Associate at Cromwell Wal-Mart when he went to meet them in May 2004.
ARGO
Argo was born in Czechoslovakia, where he was raised to
compete in Schutzhund
competitions and holds a title for "Schutzhund
1". Argo was selected and imported, through the assistance of Master
Trainer
William Scribner, of the Connecticut
Police Work Dog Association (C.P.W.D.A.).
In July 2003 Argo came to America to get ready to train as a Police Dog. It started when he was picked up by his partner, Officer Gengler. They then spent the next 4 months getting to know each other and building a bond. During this bonding time they would go to weekly training sessions with Master Trainer Scribner and train at home everyday.
In the first few weeks Argo would not even sit for Officer Gengler. With time and a growing bond, Argo began to work with Officer Gengler (and sit when told). This was just in time for then to start an intense 8 week K-9 course that was hosted by CPWDA.
In
October 2004 they began the
K-9 course. The days were long and filled with a lot of training . The training
areas varied to give the class as much exposure to new areas as possible. Each
day they would train in every aspect of police K-9 work, through all types of
weather. They would train in drug searches, tracking, building searches, K-9
socialization, bite work, and obedience. Master Trainer Scribner, Trainer
Holland, and Trainer McDermott, were the primary instructors of this course.
Through their dedication Argo, as well as his classmates, excelled though this
course. They gave credit to it being a good class (the dogs that is).
Officer Gengler & Argo - A winning team!
After the 8 weeks were completed and a graduation ceremony took place, Officer Gengler and Argo were ready to go on the road.
Argo was made an official member of the Cromwell Police in January 2004, when he was sworn in, barked "I do", and was paw printed at the Cromwell Town Hall.
Argo lives with Officer Gengler where he is a member of the Gengler family off duty.
Officer Gengler works at night due to night being the time when K-9s are most commonly used.
Training with Argo is constant. Officer Gengler goes to dedicated monthly training with Argo to work with CPWDA trainers and also does regular training while at work when they have a chance.
Officer Gengler and Argo go out of town, at times, to assist other police departments when needed as well as patrol Cromwell.
If you have any questions about Argo you can email Officer Gengler at Off.gengler@cromwellpd.com
