Long Beach K9 Association History

By: John Vogler, Retired LBPD K9 Officer

In 1975, a Long Beach Police Officer was shot and killed after pursuing a robbery suspect. The high-speed pursuit had begun in Long Beach and ended approximately four miles away in Signal Hill. After shooting the officer, the suspect then hid in a nearby graveyard. More than 50 officers from four law enforcement departments searched the graveyard for two hours in the dark, but were unsuccessful in finding the suspect.

A police dog was sent from the Westminster Police Department and within 90 seconds of starting his search, was able to locate the suspect under a clump of bushes. Soeren Poulsen, one of the Long Beach officers that was on scene, was particularly impressed and, with his own money, decided to purchase a German Shepherd, later named Kazan, and trained it for police work. Poulsen, a native of Denmark, was familiar with the intensity of police dog training. The Danish State Police had been training dogs for police work since 1908 and employed somewhere between 1500 – 2000 trained dogs a year.

In 1978, Officer Poulsen went to Denmark at his own expense to attend a special five-week training session at an army base outside of Copenhagen. When he returned to Long Beach, he and Kazan went on patrol on a trial basis.

Initially, each Officer was buying his own K-9. When Poulsen and Vogler started the unit, they decided they wanted to keep it that way. They felt they would get Officers that were dedicated to the Unit and invest in the necessary training on their own time to maintain the dog’s proficiency.

Each Officer received an additional skill pay for working with the dog. In the beginning we were each paying $10 a month to assist in buying equipment. As an example, we were short on training bite sleeves and we would roll newspaper for our arms for protection. They bought dog food in multi-bag lots for a discount and stored it in a handler’s garage. That was the start of the K-9 Association, six handlers saving money for equipment and food.

They decided to start an association similar to the Long Beach Police Officers Association (LBPOA). In October 1982 with the help of Chuck Gangloff and his wife (both attorneys) who donated their time and expertise, the by-laws and non-profit corporation paperwork was filed. So the Long Beach K-9 Officers Association (LBK9OA) was established. The LBPOA assisted by paying our filing fees.

Dick Aden and Tom Stewart were the first to take the necessary positions as Board Members. The Board of Directors runs the Association and the K-9 Officers are advisors.

As the cost of dogs has gone up, now running close to $12,500 each, the Board has assisted in the purchase of dogs. The Officers commits to work with that dog for five years after certification. The Association also pays for vaccinations, teeth-cleaning, yearly check-ups, and all medical expenses except if the dog is injured on duty. The City of Long Beach pays on-duty medical expenses.

The Association’s Board consists of 16 Directors and 100’s of dues-paying members from the community. The Board meets once a month and holds an annual Membership meeting along with a K-9 demonstration.