Laker And River Showcase The Power Of Paws In Service

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- Two of the St. Cloud Police Department’s newest officers are having a big impact on the force. Laker and River are therapy dogs and have been with the St. Cloud PD for about six months. Laker works with Officer Janelle Haas at the Katherine Johnson Education Center.

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Officer Haas says the education center is a level four school with kids with some behavioral issues.  She says Laker has had a positive impact on the kids:

“Situations that may have taken us an hour or longer to deescalate a kid and get them back to class, now there’s situations that’s taken just a matter of just a few minutes. They will pet Laker, calm down, and then I let them walk Laker back to class, and it’s just been amazing how he’s changed the building.”

Haas says Laker helps kids K through 12, and they can come see Laker anytime they are struggling.

River works with Officer John Swing on the Mental Health Unit. Swing says River has really helped with the department’s homeless outreach:

“He’s been a really good tool because a lot of these people have negative stigmas towards police so a lot of times I go over and just hand them a bottle of water and say hey do you want to pet my dog and start talking about why they’re homeless, it just opens up some dialog with these people who I probably would never have a chance of actually interacting with, without having the dog as an icebreaker so it works really well.”

Swing says now some homeless people will call him directly and ask if they can see River because they are having a bad day, and River and he will come out to try to make their day a little bit better.   He says River has also made an impact at the police station:

“And even just around here, I’ve had officers come in multiple times a day just to come and pet the dog when I’m in the office, so as far as a peer support type animal around the station, he’s been really good for morale around here. I would say the foot traffic in my office has increased 300% since he’s come and sat with me, half the time, people don’t even talk to me; they just want to see the dog. It’s definitely been a good morale improvement around the PD, which is nice.”

He says the dogs do a lot of community engagement beyond their daily jobs, too, like day care visits, Boys and Girls Club camps, and working at area high school athletic events.

Haas and Swing say people often know the dogs before them, and both River and Laker have been an amazing help for everything they do. Both River and Laker are certified through the United States Police K9 Association, and Haas says both are perfect in their roles in the department in helping people across the community.

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