The Town of Ulster Police Department will welcome a four-legged new recruit this summer as Town Board members last week approved the purchase of a Belgian Malinois police dog.
K9 Cruise is an 18-month old dog from the Slovak Republic and will be partnered with Officer Ralph Leiter. Ulster Police Chief Kyle Berardi said Leiter had already begun the four-month training process. K9 Cruise will also begin training soon, with four months in patrol school and two months in narcotics school.
During a meeting of the Ulster Town Board on Thursday, March 3, Berardi said K9 Cruise had tested well with trainers and a vet, and was obtained from Connecticut Canine Services in Bethany Connecticut. The Town Board approved using up to $9000 from a $16,100 Asset Forfeiture Fund, which can only be used for law enforcement purposes as delineated by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in an April 2009 guide.
Town Supervisor James E. Quigley III said that bringing K9 Cruise into the Ulster Police Department was a good use of the funds. “In my 12 years in office, that fund as stood at $16,000,” Quigley said. “It has not grown, and it has not been used for any acquisitions of any items that are identified in the program guidelines. So I thought it was appropriate that now is the time we can use this money to acquire a new police dog. And perhaps his activity might be able to regenerate some of the monies in that fund.”
In addition to narcotics searches, K9 units can assist in finding lost children and locating specific objects in buildings. K9 Cruise will also serve in a community relations capacity, including visiting local elementary schools.
K9 Cruise will replace retiring K9 Castor, who’s served for the past nine years.
“K9 Castor is nine years old,” said Berardi at a Thursday, February 17 meeting of the Town Board. “He’s really healthy for his age, but unfortunately police service does take a toll on a dog.
K9 Castor was partnered with Sgt. Joseph Gavila. “It’s typical that we give a new dog to a new handler so that they can grow together and learn each other,” said Quigley during the February 17 meeting.
K9 Cruise was named in honor of former Ulster Police Chief Anthony Cruise, who passed away in December 2016 following a yearlong battle with bile duct cancer. Cruise served as the chief of the town’s police department from 2012 until his resignation in mid-November 2015. He began his career in law enforcement as a corrections officer with Ulster County in 1988. After becoming a sheriff’s deputy, Cruise moved to the Town of Ulster Police Department in 1992.
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