Some fun excerpts from the HR 1 Bill:

for `Operation and Maintenance, Army National Guard', $215,557,000

for `Operation and Maintenance, Marine Corps', $112,167,000

for `Indian Health Facilities', $410,000,000

100,000,000 for YouthBuild activities (mandatory public service program for young adults)

for `Detention Trustee', $100,000,000

Only to the people buying you cheap chocolates Jenni.....sorry Steve, had to do it. Back to the serious stuff because we're in a no fun zone here.

Just a guess Howard, I think it'd be ok if they were cheap as long as it was "serious" chocolate. yuk yuk yuk..

David stated;

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So far, they've not "retired" any dogs. However they have canceled all my classes for '09. I had an explosives class scheduled for February and a patrol class scheduled for September. I am training a bloodhound and a cadaver dog. The dog that were in those positions are no longer worried. I'm more concerned about explosives detectors than I am cadaver dogs, but we do have 10 working. There are no pay raises this year. We just graduated an academy class of 35 Troopers, but future classes have been put on hold. Times are tough. There are rumors of up to 2,000 state employees being layed off.

Sounds like our 09' Spring K9 Class is on but the fall one maybe canceled and furture classes are up in the air . That's going to be tough being we are the major training center in the 5 state area . There is a proposal to freeze all state , county and city workers pay in Minnesota . Layoffs are big talk and going to happen throughout the state .

Howard , I hope you guys don't lose any K9's from your unit .

The idea about getting national K9 organizations to put together something showing the benifits financially and in safety is a good one . But , I think each K9 unit should also put together something that is specific to their department because in the end that is what their department is going to need to justify keeping dogs . I think it's also important to start building local support amongst the citizens and officers on the job . We have been through this before a few years ago . Tons of officers and citizens showed up to the council meetings and they refused the departments wishes to cut from the K9 unit . 1 councilwoman stated ; " Until the hourse unit starts training their hourses to find bombs and bite badguys ; I'm afraid we are going to have to say goodbye to some horses ."

So far we have been hearing the the city council isn't going to allow cuts from the k9 unit but we will have to see how big this budget problem is going to be .

As for Valentine's Day , I'm sure the women here had no problem getting flowers and good chocolate . Happy belated Valentine's Day to all .

Jim,

It sounds like you still have hope.

I've always been a huge proponent of the K9 unit being self sufficient. In that I mean that the assets seized as a result of K9 interdiction should go directly to the unit first, then disseminated to other areas second. In our agency, all seized assets are sold off and the money goes to the general fund. We use what items we can in our agency if it's possible (like furnishings, cars etc).

You can guess that K9 is bottom of the list for earmarked funds even though they are the ones who may have provided said funds. Don't know if all agencies work the same way.

Howard

 Quote: Howard Knauf

.... In our agency, all seized assets are sold off and the money goes to the general fund. ..... K9 is bottom of the list for earmarked funds even though they are the ones who may have provided said funds. ...

I know a PSD TD who keeps meticulous notes of his own as to what seized assets were seized as a result of his K9 team. On top of other illuminating stats (which he also keeps track of), this is a black-and-white dollars-and-cents (sense) factoid to haul out for Jim's suggested compilation.

 Quote: Jim Nash

I think each K9 unit should also put together something that is specific to their department because in the end that is what their department is going to need to justify keeping dogs ....

Our seizures go into the general fund also . Unfortunately those stats don't go into the budgetting issues because ( I think ) they differ from year to year and the city does with it as they please and I don't think they even care where the money comes from .

I have a feeling they are going to look at it closer in the future . They are already talking about doing that with our traffic enforcement . We would be tagging more on city ordinances then state statutes .

Hi Jim:

I was saddened to read about the possible cuts that your K9 unit may be faced with.

I just wondered whether the producers of K9 Cops are aware of your plight and whether you think they may be willing to help via donations? Seems they should be invested in your unit since they worked closely with you all in the production of the series and obviously they have made money from the show.

Also I realize that many times this is a touchy (political) issue, but any chance that the citizens could become more aware ( via petitions, media coverage etc) and help to offer support or even donations? I know here in my county our citizens have rallied behind the K9 units and supported through letter writing and even in purchasing dogs and necessary training for our officers when the need has arisen.

Good luck to you and Thank you so much for all you do! ( that line is meant for ALL LEO who may read this...

 Quote: Jim Nash

Our seizures go into the general fund also . .... I have a feeling they are going to look at it closer in the future . ...

Right. That's why the TD I know decided to have his own records to present at budget meetings and hearings.

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Right. That's why the TD I know decided to have his own records to present at budget meetings and hearings.

That's a very god idea . For us it get's murky . Alot of the stuff seized is when we assist other agencies and our numerious specialty units , Narcotics , F.O.R.C.E. , N.V.R.T. , C.I.T.E. , Street Crimes , Etc. . They take credit for these since it's the product of their investigations . We do find some of our own but I don't think it's enough to get the city to pay that much attention .

Plus it's a weird deal the city gets the money from the seizures not the department (we get very little from the general fund). Our department is proposing cutting the K9 unit so they don't care much about what we make for the general fund . We've tried the general fund appraoch in the past with not much luck .

It may however be a good idea for other departments especially smaller ones . It seems like smaller cities get more bang for the buck from the general funds . Larger cities (at least ours) the entire general fund is very small in comparison to the entire city's budget .

Animal Planet was going to buy us 3 SUV's for 2009 but now it doesn't look like they are coming back . We do have a foundation and they get plenty of donations from citizens it's a slipery slope with that they have slowly been paying for more and more stuff the department used to pay for . It was meant for extra equipment , training seminars etc. We want to balance their donations with the departments responsiblities .