K9 Unit History

By: John Vogler, Retired LBPD K9

The unit was started on July 1st, 1978 by Officer Soeren Poulsen as a six-month trial program. This was not an idea thought up by the Police Department, but a program presented to the Chief by Officer Poulsen. It was at this time that I became involved, as Officer Poulsen needed someone to play the bad guy for training (aka chew toy).

The dog that started the program was an American-bred German Shepherd named Kazan who Poulsen had been training in Schutzhund (a working dog competition). Dave Reavers of Adlerhorst Kennels in Riverside, CA helped. Dave continues to be a qualified supplier of K9’s.

There was a small setback that occurred back in 1978. A Sergeant, while assisting Officer Poulsen to arrest a combative suspect, was bitten in the wallet by Kazan. Kazan had remained in the car during the arrest until he saw two people fighting with his handler (the bad guy plus the Sergeant). Kazan decided the odds were not in his handler’s favor and came to Poulsen’s defense as he had been trained to do. Unfortunately, the Sergeant was the first one Kazan reached. This resulted in retraining the dogs so if the handler was fighting with a suspect, the dogs were to stay out of the fight.

Within their first two months as a K9 team Officer Poulsen and Kazan had made seven felony arrests and the Long Beach K9 program was beginning to gain wide support.

After a re-evaluation of the program, it was decided in March of 1979 to add an additional dog team. Poulsen and I had been looking for another dog that I could start training while I was decoying for Kazan. Poulsen had contacts with the Danish State Police (his home country) who were looking for a dog for him and they found a dog named Clay.

After applying and being accepted to the new K9 handler position, I purchased Kazan from Poulsen for the same cost to purchase K9 Clay plus the cost of Clay’s airfare from Denmark. The total amount was $1,052.50. As you can see,

1. Handlers supplied their own dogs.
2. The cost of dogs has gone up over the years (now around $15,000).

Kazan and I started working in April of 1979.

The Department, Officers, and the citizens of Long Beach accepted the dogs and by the end of 1979, there was a total of six dog teams. Officers Higley, Zabel, Stewart and Schroeder (who is now a Corporal and still a working handler) were added. The detail consisted of four Shepherds and two Rottweilers. Presently, the detail consists of eight K-9 teams with one Sergeant also assigned to the detail. The breeds of dogs have become a little more varied where the Officers look to the Malinois breed due to their drive.

In the 22 years as a detail, Long Beach has been recognized as the most respected in the State. Their handler course has seen hundreds of Officers from all over the West Coast and beyond.