Rock Island Police Department announces new K-9
The Rock Island Police Department announced its new K-9 officer.
According to a release, Blue is the name of the new K-9, which was announced during the March 11 city council meeting. Following a contest in which members of the community were asked to submit names, 1,313 submissions received, and after removing duplicates, 720 unique names had been submitted. The Rock Island Police Department narrowed the list down to 10 names, and Blue was chosen by the children of Officer Alex Bowman, who will again serve as K-9 handler.
“When we decided to get the public’s input into naming our new K-9, we couldn’t imagine how much our community would jump in and start making so many great suggestions,” Deputy Police Chief Tim McCloud said. “It was almost hard to keep up with all the names being submitted to the Police Department’s Facebook page and the City of Rock Island’s Facebook page. We’re excited to welcome K-9 Blue to the RIPD family and are very grateful to our community for helping choose his name.”
Blue, a male 14-month-old Belgian-Malinois and German Shepard mix, is from Cedar Creek Kennels in Monmouth, Illinois. An anonymous donor and supporter of K-9 programs stepped forward and contributed $10,000 toward the purchase and training of the new police dog for the department.
Officer Bowman will go through 10 weeks of training with the dog, also at Cedar Creek Kennels, beginning at the end of March.
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