Campus Safety July/August 2021 - 29

just fell in love with her. Her work was
tripling as the semester went on. "
It was easy to make the case to
bring on a second canine, Archie, and
Chief Cary volunteered herself as his
handler. Archie was a hit on campus
in outreach events and even as Cary
went about her work day.
" With all the meetings that I go to at
my level as chief, even the executive
level people experience stress, " Cary
said. " It was amazing to see (Archie)
coming into a room of executives and
they get down on their hands and
knees in three-piece suits and they're
petting the dog. "
Dogs Also Help with Community
Engagement
In the time since, Chief Cary has
started in her new role at U of I. Archie
made the transition with her when
she started in July 2019, and she has
introduced three other comfort K9s -
Lollipop, Rosie and Winston.
The responsibilities of the comfort
K9s is somewhat wide-ranging. They
are available for outreach events and
meetings, and they are used on mental
health crisis calls and in the immediate
aftermath of critical incidents.
" When students go in to have their
exams, they're kind of stressed out
about taking the exam and passing
the exam, " Cary said. " The dogs come
out and get them out of their seriousness
for a minute and it helps them
de-stress and brings about a little bit of
happiness before they take their exam.
That's just a small portion of what we
utilize the dogs for. "
The dogs help start a conversation
and encourage community members
to engage with police officers.
According to Cary, it " personalizes who
we are. "
" For the community engagement
piece, a lot of people are hesitant to
talk to officers in uniform, " Cary said.
" This kind of bridges the gap a little bit
and gives us something else to talk
about. It's just a natural attraction when
campussafetymagazine.com
Winston joined UIPD in 2019.
Photo courtesy of U of I.
people see the dog, they're curious
about the dog, and especially when a
police officer is handling the dog. "
U of I's Comfort K9s Have
Already Proven Their Value
In addition to their more routine community
outreach duties, K9 Lollipop
and her handler, Officer Alex Tran, have
already been involved in two major
events. The first happened when a fire
displaced several families from their
apartments in the neighboring village
of Savoy on Christmas Eve in 2020.
" We hung out with the kids on the
(warming) bus, " Tran said. " There was
a little girl who lived in the apartment
next door. They couldn't get her cat
out because it was hiding with all the
noises and everything that was going
on. So she bonded with Lollipop. "
It is this type of crisis where the therapy
dogs can provide some comfort.
" People experience things we should
not experience. Sexual assault, domestic
violence, things like that, " Tran said.
" Just having that presence of the K9
there to get them through " [is extremely
helpful.]
Dogs Can Have a 'Magical' Effect
in Public Safety
The research backs it up. In Florida, for
example, therapy dogs were used in
child advocacy centers where victims
of suspected child abuse are interviewed.
Before the therapy dogs were
introduced, about 34% of the children
interviewed disclosed to investigators
that abuse was occurring in their home.
" They introduced the dogs - they
didn't change anything else but just
introduced the comfort K9s, and they
went to almost an 85% disclosure rate, "
said Lt. Aaron Landers, who handles K9
Winston and supervises the comfort
K9 program. " So there is something
magical about, when people are in
trauma or experience something terrible,
dogs can really help out. "
Lollipop's second major incident
came when officers with the neighboring
Urbana Police Department were
the first to respond to a 911 call about a
man armed with a knife and threatening
suicide and who, at one point, cut
and stabbed himself in the presence of
officers.
Urbana police officers spoke with
the man for more than an hour. They
worked to calm and de-escalate the
situation and learned, among other
things, that he was fond of dogs.
Lollipop and Tran were called in.
Officers told the man that he could
meet with a friend that had been summoned
to the scene, have a cigarette
and see K9 Lollipop if he dropped the
knife. He ultimately surrendered and
was allowed some time to interact with
Lollipop before he was transported to a
hospital by ambulance for assessment.
No one was injured, thanks to the
empathetic response of the Urbana
Police Department and with a little
assistance from K9 Lollipop.
Rosie has been busy as well. Within
her first weeks on the job, Rosie lent
a hand on a crisis intervention call
after a U of I student communicated
thoughts of hurting herself to a
friend. As officers were speaking to
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Campus Safety July/August 2021

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