Aftermath Services awards $500 K9 Grant to Johnson City Police Department in New York

JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. - Nov. 16, 2016 - PRLog -- This Wednesday, Aftermath's Senior Manager of Law Enforcement Relations, John Tyler, presented the Johnson City Police Department with a $500 grant as 3^rd place winners in the company's 5^th Annual K9 Grant Competition. Over 3,000 police departments were nominated and over 152,000 votes were received during the event, which ran from September 30^th until October 31^st. The Johnson City Police Department shares the winner's circle with departments from New Mexico, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

With a residential population of 15,000, the Johnson City Police Department also serves a large commercial population. Though funding is consistently a challenge, Johnson City has had a functional K9 unit since the 1980s. Currently the unit consists of two dogs and their handlers. Patrolman Nicholas Crandall works with Cruz, a Dutch Shepherd and the senior member of the team. Anouk, a rookie one-and-a-half year old German Shepherd, is partnered with Patrolman Daniel Gavin. The dogs are used to conduct searches of buildings, wooded areas and other places in order to locate criminal suspects or missing persons. They are also able to detect narcotics, assist with crowd control, and retrieve evidence.

The $500 grant from Aftermath will be put toward buying much needed training tools for Anouk and Cruz. Speaking on behalf of the department, Lieutenant O'Hara explains: "Our unit is bare bones. We share equipment with other local K9 units, but it's old and outdated. The primary use (of the grant) will be for buying rubber arms for bite training. The bite sleeve is good, but the dog gets used to it and we don't want the dog to always associate the sleeve with the bite. The rubber arm is much closer to what the dog will actually experience, so it will provide more realistic training."

About Aftermath Services LLC

As the nation's largest dedicated crime scene cleanup company, Aftermath Services LLC proudly recognizes the contributions made by K9 officers and their partners. The annual K9 Grant is just one aspect of the Aftermath Cares program, aimed at acknowledging first responders for their ongoing efforts to protect and improve their communities. For more information on trauma cleaning services, or to learn more about the relationship between Aftermath and law enforcement, call 877-872-4339 or visit www.aftermath.com.