Plainfield Officer Transforms Rescued Dogs into Police K9s
Photographer / Amy Payne
It’s safe to say Senior Canine Handler for the Plainfield Police Department Rob Prichard and K9 Jocko have been instrumental in advancing police and community partnerships. The two have routinely participated in Make-A-Wish days with children diagnosed with a critical illness, volunteered at the local animal shelter, and partnered with businesses and schools.
Most recently, Prichard has found a new way to work with dogs — and help police departments across the country in the process.
K9s are trained to track criminals, locate drugs, find children and elderly individuals who are lost, and serve as a de-escalation tool.
“We are way more likely to apprehend someone quicker and safer if a K9 is present,” Prichard says. “They know this dog will bite, though they often don’t have to, and it keeps everyone safer — both the officers and the suspect. They are fantastic to have on a police force.”
Most police departments would say the K9 program within their department is invaluable. However, a trained K9 can cost upward of $15,000, and many departments simply can’t afford one.
Thanks to a new program led by Prichard, that’s all about to change.
“I liked dogs before I got Jocko, but he really made me fall in love with dogs,” he says. “We started volunteering at the animal shelter, and I noticed the world often looks at dogs in a shelter like you can’t work with them. They don’t have the same bloodline or lineage of police working dogs. I was working with these dogs and started thinking, maybe everybody has these guys wrong.”
He says not all of the dogs could undergo the training, but some, Prichard felt, were perfectly capable.
“They often have horrible backstories,” he says. “They’ve been beaten and neglected, but they’re still willing to give people a chance — and most people go through their lives never finding that kind of redemption or a second chance.”
A stray Malinois, Echo, came to the shelter nearly frozen to death.
Prichard says many would label him “too much.” He was large and full of energy, but Prichard saw something different.
“I started training him every day and saw that Echo was born to do this,” Prichard says. “He’s a super sweet dog, too. After training Echo with his current handler, he’s gone on to serve with the Plainfield Police Department. In fact, he was recently a part of one of the largest drug seizures in the department’s history.”
He did it again with Newt, a boxer mix and victim of animal cruelty. The K9 and her handler serve at Plainfield High School and were just awarded the Giraffe Award, given to people (or dogs) who have gone above and beyond the call of duty.
With two success stories under his belt, Prichard decided to move forward on a bigger scale.
He created the nonprofit program Redemption Ranch.
“We have a wonderful veterinarian partner, and I’m training the dogs alongside the new handler for free and giving the police department the dog for free,” Prichard says. “To date, 13 dogs have gone through our program. These dogs now have a home and a family, and our communities are safer.”
Those 13 K9s have gone to police departments across the state, from Tipton to Madison and towns in between.
Their next class will include dogs and handlers headed to Tennessee and Kansas, with more to come.
Prichard says in addition to providing police departments with a much-needed asset, he hopes communities will look at their animal shelter when they’re ready for a new four-legged member of the family.
“Everyone wins here,” he says. “The department wins, the dogs win, the taxpayers win. I hope people will walk into their local shelter and you’ll see what I’m talking about. They know you’ve pulled them from a shelter. They’ll show you gratitude for a lifetime. These dogs are not beyond reach. If you take them and genuinely care for them, spend time with them and invest in them, it’s worth it.”
Right now, Redemption Ranch is operating out of Prichard’s home, but with the support of the community and volunteers, he hopes to eventually open a permanent training facility.
“We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and operate solely off donations. No one on our board gets paid. I don’t get paid for this,” Prichard adds. “We’re currently operating on a case-by-case basis. We get the order for a police department, and I go out and scout one dog at a time. But eventually, I hope we can grab the dogs as they come through and maybe have multiple trainers and sites across the country. It’s going to take the volunteers, the funds and the awareness to make it happen.”
It also can’t be done without the law enforcement agencies interested in the service. Interested parties can apply at redemptionranchk9.com. Each course is 160 hours of training completed in three weeks on average.
