All dogs go to retirement: Coshocton County K-9 officer Chili turns in his badge
COSHOTON − A brave and noble officer of the Coshocton County Sheriff's Office recently retired, but he'll still be getting plenty of belly rubs for being a good boy.
K-9 Officer Chili and his human partner Deputy Steve Mox started in 2017 as the department's second K-9 team. Detective Sgt. Dave Stone began the unit in 2007 with the late Dingo. Dingo was replaced by Henata, who was replaced by Charli in 2021. Deputy Jeremy Johnson and Rip started as a third pair last summer.
Chili will now live out his days with Mox. He isn't getting a new partner right now, but Sheriff James Crawford said adding another unit could be in the future and Mox would be a prime candidate as handler. Chili was starting to get arthritis, which led to the retirement.
Chili is an 8-year-old Belgian Malinois. Stone said it was thought a good idea to add another unit when he and Henata were switched to the detective division from the road patrol, limiting some of their availability. Mox and Chili worked mostly nights.
Chili is a dual purpose dog, meaning he’s trained to find drugs as well as tracking of missing people and criminal suspects and evidence searching, like finding firearms and cell phones from burglaries. He was trained by Storm Dog K9 Training in Sunbury.
"K-9s are invaluable. Without them, we couldn't do the drug work that we do. We wouldn't have the tracking and finding of loss children we've experienced over the years," Crawford said. "They're also our deputy's backup. When we have a deputy out on patrol, it's nice to know they have someone watching their back and the K-9 will have your back."
Significant cases Mox remembers Chili being instrumental on was finding the murder weapon from a double homicide in Canal Lewisville that was tossed in a field, tracking a burglary suspect through the woods for almost two hours and finding a suspect from Licking County in a cornfield near Conesville.
"He's been great. I can't complain how he's been. We've done a lot of great things for this county," Mox said of Chili. "The older he got, I figure he would slow down, but he hasn't slowed down at all. He's still as hyper as ever."
The K-9 division has always largely been funded via donations from local businesses, foundations and service clubs. Many law enforcement offices in Ohio don't have K-9s and those that do usually only have one. Crawford said community support has led them to have one of the most successful K-9 divisions in the state.
"All of our dollars spent on the K-9s and K-9 training has been donated through local foundations, local partners and local residents who have donated thousands and thousands of dollars to make sure this program exists," Crawford said.
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with more than 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: K-9 officer Chili retires from Coshocton County Sheriff's Office
