Nine months of hard work come to fruition for police patrol dogs Icon, Ezro, Hitch, Nua, Mint and their handlers on Thursday.
They are all graduating as operational teams from the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre in Trentham.
Sergeant Max Speeding and Icon are based in New Plymouth. He has been a dog handler for 17 years and Icon is his sixth dog.
Senior Constable Jason Page and Hitch are from Whanganui. Hitch will be working alongside his litter mate Haegar who is already patrolling the streets of Whanganui with another handler.
Nua and handler Senior Constable Grant Cooper are Palmerston North based. Nua is Senior Constable Cooper’s fourth dog.
Hawke’s Bay based social media star Ezro and handler Constable Cam Gunn are also graduating. Ezro is going to be taking over from Chuck who will stay on with Constable Gunn as an AOS dog until he retires at the end of the year. You might remember seeing photos of Ezro and Chuck cooling off at the beach on the Eastern District Police Facebook page this summer.
Constable Kurt Stephenson and Mint are from Christchurch. Thursday is particularly special for Constable Stephenson as Mint is his first dog.
Five AVSEC dog teams are also graduating.
National Coordinator Police Dogs Inspector Todd Southall, Assistant Commissioner Road Policing Sandra Venables and Deputy Chief Executive: People Kaye Ryan will be at the ceremony.
The graduation ceremony starts at 1pm at the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre.
ENDS
Media are welcome to attend. The ceremony is at the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre, Dante Road, Trentham. Please RSVP to Georgia.nelson@police.govt.nz and arrive at 12.45pm.