In September 2020, the Belleville Police Service (BPS) officially reintroduced its K-9 unit, marking the return of a specialized service that had been absent since 2013. The new unit features Bax, a two-year-old German Shepherd originally from Slovakia, and his handler, Constable Jesse McInroy.
Our main function will be tracking and locating missing people and suspects, but we also do area searches, evidence searches and firearm and illegal drug detection. Anytime there’s a warrant involved or people under arrest we can search. Even just having him out of the car helps calm things down.
Constable Jesse McInroy
Over the past eight years BPS has had to reach out to the OPP or the Kingston Police Service for K-9 support, but now is the one helping out nearby services, a revenue generating opportunity:
Ironically now both those services are going through transitions with their K-9s and we’re in turn reciprocating to help them out
Jesse has been to Kingston a couple of times to help them out and Quinte West OPP as well.
Police Chief Mike Callaghan
Donors
The following community sponsors provided $64,000 to help BPS cover the costs of veterinary needs, food and upgrading the K-9 cruiser:
- Potter’s Creek – Adrian Bax
- Settler’s Ridge Developments – Adrian Bax
- ITS Trucking – Rob Haggarty
- Gordon Barr – Mike Clements
- Ainley Group – Adam Wilson
- Brad Aulthouse
- Stirling Vet
- Pet Valu – Jim Ruse
- Rona Rustige
- RFA Planning – Ruth Ferguson Aulthouse
- Van Huizen Homes – Jon Van Huizen
- Frontier Developments – Brad Newbatt
- Duvanco Homes – Dustin Van Soelen
- Cobblestone Homes – Graham Cobb
- McDonald Homes – David McDonald
- Fleetwood Homes – Ryan Bax
- Stirling Vet is helping with the veterinary services
- Pet Valu is helping with the food
- One donor supplied a vest for Bax
It’s incredibly important to have the tools that are necessary to not only make our community safer, but in the event we have somebody who is missing, whether that be a young person or an elderly person, having access to a K-9 very, very quickly can make the difference between life and death for that individual,
When we have aging individuals in our community it’s all that much more important to have those tools available at the ready to ensure that we can help save those people from peril.
Police Chief Mike Callaghan
It goes to show how integrated our community is into fabric of community safety. When people see the need and they want to reach out and support an initiative like this it’s something pretty special because this doesn’t happen in a large city and we’re so very fortunate to have this type of community support and the Belleville Police Service certainly appreciates it
Police Chief Mike Callaghan
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