Gaylord City Police Dept. Welcomes First K-9 Officer

The Gaylord City Police Department got an extra special addition to their force on Tuesday, a new K-9 Officer named Zero.

“Ever since I got into law enforcement a couple years ago, it’s been a huge thing I’ve wanted to do,” said K-9 Officer Daniel Goertz, Zero’s handler. “Having someone that’s able to go do stuff that we’re not able to do is a big factor and it helps us do our job.”

Officer Zero comes from Northern Michigan K9, Inc, who trains dogs to become K-9 Officers. He and Officer Goertz spent the month of April training side by side before Zero came in for his first day on the job.

“It’s more of training me to him than actually him training,” said Officer Goertz. “But there’s always continuous training between the two of us and just having that bond grow deeper.”

The Gaylord City Police Department received a grant last October from the Great Lakes Energy People Fund, which helped pay for Officer Zero.

“Any member that rounds up their bill to the nearest dollar, we take that extra change, and we put that into the people fund,” said Shari Culver, Vice President of Communications and Member Services. “We have a volunteer board of directors they meet twice a year and we accept applications from local nonprofit groups and we award grants.”

Culver said the request application for Officer Zero was a unique one.

“We thought it was a really neat project,” she said. “It’s going to help support the whole community of Gaylord and the surrounding areas.”

Police Chief Frank Claeys said Officer Zero will be a great addition to the force.

“We feel it’ll be a huge asset to us and have a great impact on what we’re seeing all across Northern Michigan, which is an ever-increasing drug problem,” he said.

Finding narcotics will be Officer Zero’s main job, but he’s also trained to do other things.

“He’s also a track dog, he’s an article search dog, he does do handler protection and suspect apprehension,” said Chief Claeys.

And both Officer Goertz and Officer Zero are excited for this new adventure together.

“He’s got a lot of high energy, really high drive to want to do his job, but at the same time he also loves cuddling up with me and laying on the bed,” said Officer Goertz. “He’s a good mixture of both, sometimes you want one when you get the other, but for the most part he’s everything I could ask for.”