{"id":175689,"date":"2024-02-10T00:55:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T05:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=175689"},"modified":"2024-02-12T05:31:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T10:31:22","slug":"van-wert-police-department-has-a-new-4-legged-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/02\/10\/van-wert-police-department-has-a-new-4-legged-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Wert PD has a new 4-legged officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong><em>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Van Wert Police Department has a new officer and he\u2019ll start training on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Figaro, a 1 1\/2 year-old Dutch Shepherd from Hungary, was selected Friday morning by Van Wert Police Chief Doug Weigle and Officer Elijah Wortman, who will serve as Figaro\u2019s handler. Weigle and Wortman traveled to Vohne Liche Kennels in Denver, Indiana, to select the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"410\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Figaro-I-2024-e1707733860480.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-175690\"\/><figcaption>Officer Elijah Wortman will serve as the handler for the Van Wert Police Department&#8217;s new K9, Figaro. <em>Photo submitted<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOfficer Wortman has been a very dedicated and dependable employee of the Van Wert Police Department,\u201d Weigle said. \u201cHe is proactive and he has shown to have all of the qualities needed to be chosen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Starting Monday, Wortman and Figaro will spend the next six weeks training. Once the training is complete, both will need to be certified through the State of Ohio. Lt. Rob Black, a previous K9 handler will be assigned as the K9 supervisor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chief Weigle said the K9 program is being funded by the city and is being revived to provide more opportunities for officers. Figaro becomes the Van Wert Police Department\u2019s first K9 since March of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe dog will be trained on drugs and to help search for people when needed,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt will help speed up the process for building clearing and a K-9 program is always good for public relations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is the history of the police department\u2019s K9 program:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Bismark:<\/strong> October, 1981-June, 1984; Handler: Officer Tom Bartz<br><strong>Branko:<\/strong> March, 1984-September, 1989; Handler: Officer Dick Fry<br><strong>Bo:<\/strong> June,1992-December, 1999; Handler Officer: Tim Blackmore<br><strong>Casper:<\/strong> May, 2000-December, 2005; Handler: Officer Tim Blackmore<br><strong>Taco: <\/strong>November, 2005-November, 2011; Handler: Officer Rob Black<br><strong>Lakkie:<\/strong> January, 2006-August, 2011; Handler: Officer Steve Boroff<br><strong>Bade: <\/strong>November, 2011-March, 2017; Handler: Officer Jeremy Stemen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The Van Wert Police Department has a new officer and he\u2019ll start training on Monday. Figaro, a 1 1\/2 year-old Dutch Shepherd from Hungary, was selected Friday morning by Van Wert Police Chief Doug Weigle and Officer Elijah Wortman, who will serve as Figaro\u2019s handler. Weigle and Wortman traveled to Vohne Liche [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-175689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 10:37:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175689"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175750,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175689\/revisions\/175750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}