The Cobb Police Department said Tuesday that one of its own died in the line of duty on Monday.
Sgt. Wayne Delk said in a release Tuesday that Chase, a member of the department’s K9 unit, was left in an officer’s vehicle Monday afternoon during a police active shooter training session at Allatoona High School.
Delk said that the dog was left there in a kennel while officers conducted a training session in the school, and that police personnel checked on the animal every 15 minutes or so.
He said air conditioning was being provided to the animal in the car of his handler, Officer Neill.
But when an officer checked on Chase around 2 p.m., Delk said, the dog was unresponsive.
That’s because the air conditioning system in the car wasn’t working, according to police.
“Life-saving measures were started by Officer Neill, other Cobb Officers, and Cobb County Fire personnel” who were on the scene for the active shooter training, Delk said.
The dog was taken to a nearby emergency veterinary hospital but the animal died due to “heat-related injuries,” the Cobb Police release said.
“Preliminary information indicates that other safety systems did not properly activate and the temperature quickly rose in the vehicle,” Delk said.
“This is a horrible incident and our investigators are continuing to gather information regarding the vehicle system failures that led to this tragedy.”
Responses to the department’s social media postings about the incident included many that were critical of that action, while others defended the police.
UPDATED, June 7: The Cobb Police Department published this post this morning to explain why it keeps dogs inside patrol vehicles, and how an alert system is triggered:
“If the air conditioning system fails and the temperature reaches a point where it’s too hot, the safeguard automatically turns on the lights and the sirens, the windows automatically go down, and a fan turns on. The handler is notified and returns to their vehicle to address the problem.
“The patrol vehicle is always left running with the air conditioning on, but should something go wrong, the vehicle is equipped with a safeguard to protect the canine. Unfortunately, this vehicle had multiple failures, the alert system did not activate, and the handler was not alerted about an issue until they returned to the vehicle to check on the canine.”
Delk said that Chase was later taken to the Cobb County Animal Shelter and would be transported to the University of Georgia for a necropsy.
Chase was a four-year-old Belgian malinois born in Hungary and was named after Chase Maddox, a Locust Grove police officer killed in the line of duty in 2018.
The dog had been on duty with Cobb Police since April 2020, and his duties included narcotics detection, criminal apprehension, tracking, building searches and evidence recovery.
Cobb Police said in a separate social media posting that Chase “seized thousands of dollars worth of illegal narcotics, with numerous arrests and apprehensions.”
Related:
- Suspects captured in Windy Hill-Bentley Road vehicle chase
- 1 suspect killed, another injured in shooting at Northeast Cobb home
- Former Cobb Police officer sentenced for assault, child cruelty
- East Cobb man sentenced for shooting at neighbors, police
- Cobb Police capture suspect in Atlanta mass shooting
- Man sentenced to 15 years for stalking Indian Hills woman
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It is unforgivable that a police dog was left in the police car and died due to the heat. The dogs should never be left in a car, unless the windows are left down. Obviously, the fail safes did fail, and it doesn’t seem as if the dog was actually checked on every 15 minutes.
Dogs should be taken into the building with the officers and not left in cars.
Multiple backup safety measures failed. Until the root cause for each of those failures is known, keep the dogs with you and set off the sirens when the vehicle temperature is above 80°F.
I’m sure the officer involve is grief stricken. Chase was his partner and they have a strong bond. I have no doubt it was an accident.
I doubt whether the dog was checked every 15 minutes. That would be a big interruption in any training exercises and easy to delay, until it is too late.
I am sorry, to say that you checked on the animal every 15 minutes and then go to blaming the vehicles a/c not working.
Someone needs to never be in K9 again. That dog was a valuable commodity to the community and if Chase was at the training session, Chase should have been involved in the training !!!