MANCHESTER – The township police department is welcoming a new officer serving on the force, K-9 officer Buck.
The red American Labrador, who is less than a year old, was specially trained in detecting narcotics by scent as well as tracking with the New Jersey Police K-9 Association in Tinton Falls, led by Lt. Antony Turso.
Buck’s handler is Officer Jon Meaney, who has been serving in the township police department since 2020.
The new addition to the department’s K-9 unit was purchased from Garden State K-9 in Succasunna, thanks to grant funding and the support of the Manchester Police Foundation. Meaney and the rest of the department is looking forward to Buck’s graduation on January 20, 2025, and can’t wait to see him in action.
In a 2020 interview with The Manchester Times, Lisa Parker, then serving as the department’s police chief, reviewed the history of the department’s K-9 Unit that had been around 22 years prior. The unit was reactivated in 2015.
The reason the unit was reactivated was that an increase in narcotics responses was noted around 2014, according to Chief Parker. Storm was the department’s first four-legged addition to the force when the unit was restarted. He came from the Netherlands while Lynk joined the department soon after and was from Hungry. Both dogs were trained at Shelly’s School for Dogs/Green Leaf Pet Resort, Millstone Township.
The two dogs paid for themselves in the first year through the number of items that were confiscated during arrests.
At that time, Manchester Police had seized 40 cars, and money-wise the actual cash seized was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Law enforcement agencies can garner a designated amount from the value of confiscated vehicles and items from arrests through state police regulations.
Parker previously said the K-9 officers are used “on side-to-side evenings but they sometimes are called in for some day shift work.” She noted that with the county, state and nation’s current opioid crisis the department has been working to bring drug use awareness to the school district.
In 2017, community donations helped fund the purchase of a K-9 kennel for police dogs Storm and Lynx.
Those in the community who would like to support the K-9 Unit and future initiatives can do so by visiting: manchesterpolicenj.com/administration-professional-standards/manchester-township-police-foundation.
The Manchester Township Police Foundation is a coalition of business and civic leaders, organizations and individuals committed to the idea that an educated, well-trained and modernly equipped police force leads to a safer community for all according to the Foundation’s website.
The Foundation was established in 2014 as an independent, non-profit organization to promote excellence in the Police Division and to improve public safety in Manchester Township.
