WKSU News: Ohio bill would let police officers buy their K-9s at fair market value

Thursday, February 4, 2016 Ohio bill would let police officers buy their K-9s at fair market value Marietta officer's situtation led to the bill by WKSU's STATEHOUSE CORRESPONDENT JO INGLES	Reporter Jo Ingles

A GoFundMe campaign resolved the situation for officer Matt Hickey and his dog Ajax.

Courtesy of GoFundMe

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Ohio lawmakers are preparing to take up a bill that would change the way police dogs are treated when their human partners retire. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports.

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Democratic Sen. Lou Gentile is proposing a law that would no longer require police agencies to sell working police dogs at auctions as they do with other property when their human officers retire.

“There’s a strong bond, a special bond, between these dogs, these canines and these officers, one that shouldn’t be broken and our legislation attempts to fix that.”

Gentile’s legislation would allow the retiring officer to buy the dog at fair market value.

The problem came to light recently in Marietta when a retiring officer discovered he could not purchase his police dog outright. In n the end, the officer was able to buy his dog for one dollar but Gentile hopes this legislation will keep the controversy from happening again.