K-9 Quinn retires from East Lansing Police Department after record-breaking career
EAST LANSING - Looking back at their eight years working together and breaking a department record, East Lansing Police Sgt. Travis Bove gives all of the credit to K-9 Quinn, a German Shepard.
He was just the human on the other end of the leash.
“I’m just glad we were able to make a difference,” he said.
On Jan. 1 Quinn, who is around 10 years old, retired after working with Bove in area law enforcement since 2013.
The pair worked in East Lansing as a dual-purpose patrol and narcotics K-9 team. They were assigned to Ingham County Sheriff Special Response Team from 2015 to 2020, first as a perimeter K-9 team and then as K-9 team leader, according to the police department.
The duo has probably handled more than 500 calls in their career, many of which ended in felony apprehensions or narcotics seizures. Bove and Quinn are responsible for more captures, or finding people, than any other K-9 team in the department’s history.
East Lansing Police Capt. Chad Connelly said in an email the department doesn’t have official numbers, but Bove and Quinn exceeded 50 captures in their career, most of which were for felony-level crimes, beating the former record of 47.
“They not only increased the safety of our community but surrounding ones as well,” he said.
Quinn and Bove’s journey began in 2013, the year Bove was finally selected for a coveted K-9 spot after waiting seven years for it. Bove wanted to be a K-9 officer from the beginning of his career after seeing the bond between officers and their dogs, and the resources they offered the community.
Quinn came from Budapest, Hungary, so all his commands are in Hungarian. The first time Bove met the dog he was 2 years old.
“In dog terms, he was a high-energy teenager,” he said.
Bove said it was exciting and humbling work. It was a lot of practice learning the craft of working together, learning what it meant when Quinn wagged his tail or when his ears came up a certain way.
“You just have to learn how to kind of, I don't know, for lack of a better term, dance together and figure out what his tells are,” he said.
Their work varied and they could be giving a police dog demonstration at a school and then later get called to find a suspect that fled an area.
Bove recalled responding to an incident where a gun involved in a shooting was thrown in the area of a cornfield ditch. He and Quinn were called to find the gun the next day and they located it within minutes.
On another call, they searched for a missing older woman who had dementia. It was winter and they found her lying in the snow underneath a pine tree at 3 a.m., wearing just a nightgown. If they hadn't found her, she would have perished, he said.
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It’s rewarding to find evidence or people who have committed crimes. But to find kids who wandered off and weren't old enough to fend for themselves or to find missing adults with dementia or other disabilities who could have been in danger, “you can’t put a tangible price tag on that,” Bove said.
Those days are behind Quinn, who now stays at Bove’s home sleeping on the couch and watching TV with his family while the sergeant goes to work.
Bove is still emotional about Quinn retiring. Over the past eight years there have only been a handful of times the two haven’t been together. The dog has only been boarded once when Bove got married.
In those eight years Bove believes he spent more time with Quinn than with his own wife and kids. There’s no tighter bond, he said.
Bove now leads the East Lansing Police Department’s K-9 unit and trains numerous K-9 teams from other area departments. He hopes the department gets another K-9, as they are “absolutely invaluable tools and assets.”
He’s grateful Quinn wasn’t hurt during their time working together. And he’s grateful Quinn was the dog chosen for him.
“It was a heck of a ride,” he said.
Contact Bryce Airgood at 517-267-0448 or bairgood@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: K-9 retires from East Lansing Police after record-breaking career
