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| Auburn Police K9 Unit |
The Auburn Police Department K9 Unit started as a dream by Officer Mark Locastro. Officer Locastro wanted to provide the department with a Police canine that would mesh with the needs of the city. Officer Locastro approached Chief Gary Giannotta with his idea, and once the Chief gave the go ahead, the next problem was raising the funding to support the program. With much effort, money was raised through the department's narcotic fund and $5,800 in private donations.
Officer Locastro had aspirations to be the dog handler, but after suffering a serious injury he was unable to attend the rigorous training at the Onondaga K9 Academy. This is when Officer Scott Shaft was called on to fill the position as handler. Shaft was qualified, dedicated, and a highly dependable Officer, willing to step up to the challenge of going through the training, and once completed being on call twenty-four hours a day.
The Auburn Police Department then purchased Ida, pronounced "Etta", a 17 month old Czechoslovakian purebred German Shepherd. Ida was hand picked by Onondaga Counties sheriff's canine trainer/supervisor Sgt. Jeffrey Gates, after she was heavily tested. Very few dogs pass these tests, and shepherds are mainly used for police work because of their drives and trainability.
In April 1997 Officer Scott Shaft began an intensive nine week training program at the Onondaga K9 Academy. Ida was trained to track, do building searches, crowd control, and suspect apprehensions. As of February 1998 Ida was also trained to be a drug detection dog. She was now able to detect such drugs as marihuana, cocaine, and heroin. This new skill learned by Ida was a great asset not only to the Patrol Division but to the Auburn Police Narcotics Division. Even though Ida completed these two schools her training never ended. Ida and her handler Officer Shaft attended update training at the Onondaga K9 Unit twice a month. Ida served the City of Auburn for almost seven years. In early 2004 Ida was retired from duty by Officer Shaft. Ida was kept by Officer Shaft as his pet and close companion. Shortly after retirement Ida died. Her dedication to her handler and to the City of Auburn will be greatly missed. |
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The Auburn Police Department K9 Unit generally has a staffing level of two K9 teams with each team consisting of an Officer and their specially trained dog. Currently the Auburn Police Department's K9 Unit is staffed by Officer Mark Locastro and his K9 Eris, and Officer Andrew Kalet and his K9 Roni. These two Officers both handle German Shepard K9's, which completed training at the Onondaga County K9 Academy.
The two teams are assigned vehicles specially equipped for their duties. The rear seats of Officer Locastro's Ford Crown Victoria and Officer Kalet's Chevrolet Impala are removed and a cage is installed to house the dogs. The windows of the vehicles are tinted for the dog's welfare to minimize solar heating of the vehicle interior during the summer months.
These two K9 teams are assigned varying shifts and are called upon to perform the above listed tasks, as needed by our agency as well as during mutual aid requests from surrounding agencies such as the Cayuga County Sheriff's Department and the New York State Police. Currently Officer Kalet is assigned to shift #1 (0000-0800hrs) and Officer Locastro is assigned shift #3 (0800-1600hrs). These two teams are also assigned routine patrol work and calls for service as needed. The dogs are housed at the Officer's residence to optimize their response time and availability as each team is also on-call for incidents occurring when they are no on duty.
Officer A. Kalet, K-9 Handler
Contributions made by: Citizen Correspondent
Judy Clarke
