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New Madison Police Dog Making the Rounds

Following the recent retirement of Madison Police Department K-9 Gwen, the department has recently brought in a new addition, Decker. Decker, a male yellow Labrador retriever, is training to be a narcotics dog, replacing the department’s long-service narcotics dog Gwen, a female black Labrador who retired in April.

Partnered with Officer Cara Hewes, Decker, who is just over a year and a half old, has been on the job for about two weeks. Hewes said he is getting comfortable with the police car and has been going out to community and school events. In June, Decker will go away to school for formal training and then be joined by Hewes in July for additional joint training.

“It is awesome,” said Hewes of having a K-9 unit. “It is what I have always wanted to do.”

Madison now has German shepherd Paco, a K-9 patrol dog, as well a Decker. Madison Police Chief Jack Drumm previously said the dogs are assets to the Police Department, but he is always surprised by the community support for the dogs as well.

To help cover the costs of a K-9 unit, local business Coastal Chiropractic and Wellness presented police officers with a $350 check on May 17 to help defray the cost of outfitting the canine unit car and any other thing Decker might need. Joseph Avena of Coastal Chiropractic and Wellness said the business sees a lot of police officers come in and out of their office so the practicve wanted to find a way to give back to the department.

After learning of the new K-9 unit, Coastal started a Facebook fundraiser and collected donations from the business as well as patients.

“We just wanted to do anything we could to help our friends,” said Avena.