Council votes to sell new K-9—again

Less than two months after approving the purchase of a four-legged law officer, the Daleville City Council voted to sell the K-9 at the city council meeting April 5.

“Since our K-9 handler has resigned and we do not have anyone to take on this role, I would like to seek an agency to purchase Rocky for the best available offer,” said Daleville Mayor Jayme Stayton.

The council unanimously approved the mayor’s request to sell Rocky, the Hungarian born Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd mix narcotics, tracking and apprehension dog for the Daleville Department of Public Safety that the council approved purchasing at the council meeting Feb. 15.

Rocky is the second such K-9 that the council has approved purchasing, at the request of the DPS, in less than a year.

Bravo, a Belgian Malinois K-9, was unanimously approved by the council for purchase at the recommendation of former DPS Chief Allen Medley at the council meeting Aug. 17, 2021 after Medley told the council at a work session the previous day that the Slocomb Police Department had offered the opportunity to purchase the certified K-9 and his truck for $25,000.

Bravo’s previous handler had worked with him for about a year but had recently transferred to another department, Medley told the council at that time, detailing the package deal for the certified drug dog who reportedly could serve as a patrol and tracking dog.

The vehicle offered with Bravo was a fully equipped patrol vehicle with 130,000 miles, Medley told the council at that time. “All we have to do is put stripes and identification as a K-9 vehicle on it,” Medley said.

Six months later, Medley again approached the council, this time asking to have Bravo retired. At a Daleville City Council work session Jan. 31, Medley introduced Dothan Police Department Canine Trainer/Canine Commander Lt. William Wozniak who outlined for the council the training that his department provides to area law enforcement at no cost to them. He said he had been contacted by then-DPS Lt. Daniel Przybylski, Bravo’s handler, to conduct an evaluation of the dog.

“When I first saw Bravo, he knew what he was looking for but the end result wasn’t there,” Wozniak told the Daleville Council. “Whoever taught him, taught him what he was looking for but didn’t teach him what to do when he got there.

“And that causes issues,” Wozniak told the council. “Drugs are going to be the biggest thing you get here and the last thing you want is for there to be (legal) questions about your dog.”

At the Jan. 31 work session, Medley and Wozniak recommended retiring Bravo and told the council about Rocky, a two-year-old narcotics, tracking and apprehension dog in Texas available for the price of $8,500—as opposed to what Wozniak said was the usual price of such a canine which ran between $11,000 and $15,000.

On Feb. 1, the council voted to officially retire DPS K-9 Officer Bravo and  approved the purchase of K-9 Officer Rocky.

On April 5, the council voted to officially find a purchaser for Rocky, who is currently being housed at the Houston County Canine Facility.

The next meeting of the Daleville City Council is April 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the council chambers at the Daleville City Hall. The meeting is open to the public.