A new officer is about to start at the Lincoln Township Police Department. Echo is a 1-year-old Belgian Malinois recruited to be the department’s K9, and she just arrived in the United States from Poland last week. Lincoln Township Police Chief Gary Soper tells WSJM News the department collected $30,000 from the public to get the K9. That support came in from businesses and individuals.
“It’s fantastic this community came together so quickly for this cause,” Soper said. “It’s quite impressive.”
Soper says students at Lakeshore schools got to pick the dog’s name. Echo is now at a facility in Eaton Rapids to go through scent training through April 5. From there, Echo will stay with K9 Officer David Burrow so they can get to know each other, and then Echo and Burrow will go through a five week training program together. Soper says the department will use Echo for patrols, tracking, and narcotics detection. She’s expected to be fully in service in mid-May.
