GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – A new memorial honors the service of Green Bay’s four-legged officers.
A K-9 monument was unveiled outside Green Bay Police headquarters in conjunction with National Police Week Monday.
“These dogs are out here all the time keeping all of us here who live in the city of Green Bay safe,” Chief Christopher Davis said.
The monument features a bust of K-9 Neo. Neo, a Belgian Malinois, served with handler Joe Merrill for 10 years.
“These officers who work with these dogs, it’s a tremendous amount of work. And we compensate them for it, obviously, but it goes on off-duty as well because these dogs live with them. We have to modify their house and build a dog kennel at their house, and this role becomes just an essential part of their lives,” Davis continued.
Davis said he hopes to expand the department’s K-9 program because of the versatility the dogs provide.
“It’s not just people involved in crimes,” Davis explained. “We use these dogs to find missing children and missing elderly people, which is especially important in a place like this where weather can be a really big factor in survival situations and these dogs literally save people’s lives in those situations.”
The Bark ‘N’ Blue Foundation worked with some local organizations and donors to raise money for the memorial.
The organization said the statue is made of bronze and weighs more than 200 pounds.
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