STAFFORD – Newly retired Stafford K-9 Officer Ollie may be a bit of a newshound based on his behavior at January’s town council meeting.
As the Belgian Malinois and his partner, Master Police Officer Christopher M. Smith, walked the room before the session started, Ollie clenched an empty plastic water bottle between his teeth.
When the pair reached the front row, a reporter asked permission to pet the handsome canine. Smith appeared momentarily surprised as he watched Ollie’s reaction to the attention.
“Look, he dropped his water bottle,” Smith pointed out. “He seems to like you.”
Just about every journalist knows when they’re being hounded for coverage. In this case, Ollie seemingly sniffed out the one he sensed would write his story.
The human on the other end of the leash, Smith, shared the highlights of his partner’s decade-long career with the Stafford Township Police Department.
Ollie’s passport from Belgium documents his full name as Oliver. Smith and another K-9 handler picked him up in Virginia when he was nine months old.
“Typically, you’ll never buy a police dog who is under a year,” said Smith. “The guy who sold him to us has tested hundreds of dogs and insisted that Ollie was ready. So, we tested him and found he was better than other dogs who had more training despite his age.”
Smith admitted he had his heart set on a German shepherd and didn’t want Ollie for that reason. He considered turning back on the way home to get a different dog, but his companion K-9 handler convinced him the Belgian Malinois was absolutely perfect.
“I’ve met other canine guys over the years who all say the same thing,” Smith shared. “They all comment on the fact that Ollies’s social. He’s also quiet when you want him to be and loud when you need him to be. He did the job perfectly.”
Like every law enforcement officer, Ollie needed proper training before he was ready to hit the streets. For Ollie’s first four months at the K-9 Academy in Atlantic City, the K-9 duo worked together on patrol training. This involved refining skills on tracking, building searches, bite work training, and obedience.
Ollie had a three-month respite from the academy before he and Smith returned to Atlantic City for another three months to master narcotics training.
As a dual-purpose dog, Ollie has played a lifesaving role on more than one occasion. Smith’s voice beamed with pride as he shared some of his partner’s accomplishments.
“We had a missing Alzheimer’s patient a few years ago,” began Smith. “It was in March, and it was very cold.”
The woman who disappeared was one of two sisters who lived together. Although she’d wandered from the front of the residence previously, this was the first time she was gone for any length of time. The sister who placed the call was frantic.
Smith first determined the direction where the woman usually drifted, and Ollie started tracking with his nose to the ground. The K-9 team wound up in the woods at least a mile behind where they’d started.
“We ended up in an area where they were starting to build a new development,” Smith said. “There were holes in the ground where they planned to put in the basements.”
Ollie directed Smith to one of the holes, which he described as pretty big. It turns out the missing woman had fallen in and couldn’t get out of the hole.
“It was March, and the temperatures were in the 30s,” recalled Smith. “I’m pretty certain that without using a dog to track her, the woman would have died that night.”
On another occasion, Smith and Ollie came to help Little Egg Harbor Police locate a person who ran off into the woods with a gun.
“My dog picked up his track, and we tracked a straight line and made a hard left,” Smith detailed. “Sure enough, the guy was trying to hide from us. Ollie was barking and barking, and I couldn’t see the guy. He moved a little bit, and it ended up turning into a shooting, with him pointing the gun at us.”
While Smith considers that night one of his scariest while out with the K-9, he also credited Ollie for his diligence. Had the gunman made it into a nearby neighborhood, the situation could have gone from bad to worse.
The K-9 officer’s retirement a few weeks ago has nothing to do with his age or any signs of poor health. Changes in New Jersey’s laws are impacting the careers of canines throughout the state. The first starts with the decriminalization of marijuana.
“Ollie’s trained in marijuana detection,” explained Smith. “You cannot untrain a dog not to get excited for an odor anymore. It’s like telling someone they’re not going to like chocolate anymore.”
According to Smith, even at 11 years old, Ollie could still be used for tracking for another year. However, the Attorney General has lowered the use of patrol dogs.
“When you hear the term patrol dog, it means that a dog can bite a suspect who’s running from you,” Smith said. “We can’t use them as much as we used to in the past.”
Smith entered Ollie into different K-9 competitions, where his partner came back a winner on multiple occasions. Ollie ranked first in obedience at the New Jersey level two separate times. Ollie also achieved second place in the state for his narcotic work. When Ollie competed against several departments nationwide for his narcotic work, he ranked in the top 60s.
Stafford Mayor Greg Myhre honored Ollie with a proclamation at the January town council meeting. Many of Ollie’s fellow officers attended the event, which also included the swearing-in of James Knoeller III as a new police officer.
“No offense to you guys,” smiled Myhre as he looked at the other officers. “Ollie’s probably one of the most popular officers ever. He’s a very talented dog and has done a lot of things for the township.”
Smith and Ollie continue to adjust to the change in their schedules. The two worked ten-hour shifts together, and Ollie loved coming into the building. His regular routine was to go down the hallway to one of the first offices that were open. Ollie loved dipping into the recycling bin and grabbing an empty bottle to carry with him. On the night of the town council meeting, Ollie returned to his old habits and hung on to his coveted prize.
While Ollie no longer comes in to work with Smith, the retired K-9 officer lives at home with his partner. The faithful dog stands watch over the Smith family and waits at the door for his handler’s safe return.
As for Smith, he’s moved on to become a training officer for his brothers and sisters in blue. With 20 years on the job, his experience won’t just go to the dogs.
