By Marty Trese, KnoxPages.com Editor
MOUNT VERNON – MVPD’s new K-9 officer and handler were introduced together at Thursday night’s 5th Town Hall meeting to discuss the local drug epidemic. The dog will assist law enforcement in the fight against drugs. Thursday night’s focus was on the financial toll the epidemic is having on the community.
The new K-9’s name is Laya and her handler is Officer Sarah Wheeler. The department acquired Laya thanks to donations from the public through the Arms of an Angel Foundation. Officer Wheeler said Laya is a two and half year old Belgian Malinois. The name “Malinois” is derived from Malines, the French name for the breed’s city of origin. Laya is from France and her commands are in French.
Laya’s duties will include apprehension of articles and evidence and sniffing out narcotics – cocaine, crack, meth, heroin and marijuana. The dog was trained at Storm Dog in Delaware, Ohio, the same facility where Danville’s police dogs have been trained. Right now Officer Wheeler is completing six weeks of handler training.
MVPD K-9 Officer Sarah Wheeler and Laya at Thursday’s town hall at MVHS – KP Photo by Marty Trese
Following an introduction by Mayor Richard Mavis, the office that organized the series of town halls, presentations were made by MVFD, Fredericktown EMS, MVPD, KCSO, Judges, Probation officers, Knox Community Hospital, Children’s Services, and The Freedom Center.
While many dollar figures and statistics were presented last night a few stood out. These days the county jail is at or near its capacity of 100 inmates. The number of EMS runs to administer Naloxone, a narcotic protagonist, have nearly doubled since 2015. Thanks to community notifications drug reports to MVPD have doubled in 2017.Collaboration is the key to the community successfully addressing the drug problem.
MVFD Chief Chad Christopher says 65 or 2% of their call volume is opioid related. In 2015 and 2016 that percentage was 1.6%. The MVFD response a overdose call takes an average of one hour per incident. Lt. Trevor Williams of MVFD says the department dispensed 86 doses of Naloxone in 2015, 83 in 2016, and so far in 2017, 152 at $50 per dose.
Fredericktown EMS coordinator Rick Lanuzza said not every overdose call requires naloxone. But multiple doses of naloxone are needed due to the strength of some of the opioates.
MVPD Captain Scott McKnight presented information on behalf of Chief Roger Monroe. That information will be posted in part two of this story.
