K-9 Cooper back on the beat in East Lyme
Sep. 3—EAST LYME — Inside a police SUV marked with a K-9 Unit sticker, the chirp of the radio and the sound of Officer Chris Dube's voice as he called into dispatch put his partner Cooper into work mode.
The 5-year-old German Shepherd's distinctive pointy ears perked up behind the metal insert recently installed by town public works crews to turn the backseat of the Ford Interceptor into a kennel on wheels. While Dube took in the details about an erratic driver seen somewhere in the vicinity of Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the 70-pound dog shook out his fur to release pent-up energy.
It was just after 4 p.m. at the start of the evening shift. Cooper, the department's newest K-9, arrived a month ago with more than three years' experience working midnights with Dube at the Madison Police Department.
The duo work either days or evenings on an alternating schedule broken up by three days off. Dube said his partner prefers the daylight hours.
"He gets out more," Dube said. "We're more active."
Dube left the Madison department after eight years for better pension and health care benefits once he started planning for a future with his then-fiancée, Shannon. The couple married in June. They live in Madison with two cats, nine chickens and Cooper.
Dube said Cooper was officially retired as a Madison K-9 when they left the department. But that didn't last long once East Lyme police Chief Mike Finkelstein pitched to his union the idea of bringing the dog back on the beat.
Cooper was not destined to be a house pet.
"On our brief retirement phase, he did not like being home," Dube said. "He just wanted to work and work. He's probably the best partner I've ever had, and one of my best friends here."
Finkelstein said the department had already been talking about getting another four-legged officer to join Belgian malinois Dom.
"It was a discussion with union leadership about the fact that you had an officer who was an experienced canine handler with a fully trained dog," he said. "It seemed like a win-win."
The move saved the department the cost of a new dog, which in Dom's case was $8,495. It also saved the 10 weeks of training that would have taken an officer off the streets.
Finkelstein budgeted a total of $7,400 this year for the two dogs' training, food and veterinary care. The funds are supplemented by donations and proceeds from the sale of seized property, according to the chief.
Cooper is trained for patrol and narcotics functions including tracking, building searches, criminal apprehension, evidence recovery and handler protection. He can detect crack, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and MDMA.
They attend two days of training a month to maintain their certification, Dube said. In between, he enlists other officers to practice tracking and fellow handler Bill Langman to work with Cooper and Dom on narcotics detection.
Finkelstein said having another dog allows the department to offer more mutual aid to area towns through a K-9 hotline that benefited East Lyme many times when the department was without its own police dog for two years prior to Dom's arrival in 2021.
A nose for police work
Back on patrol last week, Cooper began to calm down in his enclosure while Dube's fruitless search for the erratic green car ― maybe a Corolla, according to the runner who called it in ― took them along Route 161 from Niantic to Flanders Four Corners.
As the K-9 made a half circle before lying down on the floor of the enclosure, Dube estimated Cooper sees tracking and detection action a few times a month. He cited several successful tracks leading to arrests while in Madison, as well as an auspicious start in East Lyme.
Dube said it was Cooper's first day back on the beat when a call came over the K-9 hotline asking for help to track down a man who'd fled on foot after rolling over his car on Gallup Hill Road in Ledyard. The dog followed the scent from the car, down the road, through a couple of backyards and into a yard on Flintlock Road where another officer had just discovered the driver.
Cooper's confirmation track, which linked the crash site to the hiding place, was further evidence officers had located the right man.
"We confirmed that, yes, he was at the car, based on his nose here," Dube said, nodding back to his partner.
It was a situation described in a letter from Ledyard Police Department police Chief John Rich to his East Lyme counterpart to commend Dube and Cooper on their work.
Rich said the man was arrested without incident.
"Please express my appreciation to Officer Dube for a job well done, and do not hesitate to call if we can ever be of assistance to the East Lyme Police Department," he wrote to Finkelstein.
24/7 partnership
Cooper's enthusiasm for the job was evident again when Dube pulled over a speeder clocked at 63 mph in the 45 mph zone coming off the Rocky Neck Connector. The lights and sirens triggered a reaction in the dog that resulted in barking, jumping and the metallic clang of his tail against the enclosure. The dog pressed his wet nose against the square slats of the divider as he watched his partner get out of the car to talk to the driver.
Without Dube, Cooper whined and paced in tight circles before plopping himself down with a sigh.
After Dube issued a verbal warning to a driver who told him she'd been having a bad day, the cacophony of sirens and barking played out again when the officer pulled over someone who'd just run a red light at the same intersection.
He came back to say he'd issued verbal warning to the woman visiting her daughter at York Correctional Institution.
"It sounds like she's dealing with some stuff as well," he said. "And I'm kind of a sucker for that kind of sob story."
Dube, whose father's law enforcement career in Guilford inspired his own, said he's always known he wanted to be a police officer. And while he never had a dog before Cooper, he said he's long been fascinated by the things the animals can do that humans can't.
Then there's the fact that Cooper always had his back, he said as he drove his companion toward the station so they could stretch their legs and play some fetch before heading out again.
"I have a partner with me 24/7," he said. "I know he's going to want to keep me alive as much as I'm going to want to keep him alive."
