The Manchester Township Police Department is proud to announce the graduation of Officer Steve Wendruff and his canine partner, Lynk from the Ewing Township Police Department’s (Mercer County) K-9 Patrol Class No. 3 on December 11, 2015.
The free, 16 week K-9 Patrol Class was conducted by Lead K-9 Trainer Matthew Nemes of the Ewing Township Police Department and K-9 Trainer Ronald Buchanan of the Lawrence Township Police Department. Having successfully completed the K-9 Patrol class, K-9 Officer Wendruff and Lynk will resume patrol activities before receiving 14 weeks of scent detection (narcotic) training through the New Jersey State Police. The NJSP scent detection school is tentatively scheduled to begin in March of 2016.
During the patrol class, the canine teams received training in areas which included but was not limited to: tracking subjects under various weather conditions, conducting building searches, open area searches, article searches, criminal apprehension, and officer protection. The canines also received obedience training, agility training and were socialized with people and other canine teams.
“Today’s graduation marks an important day for the Manchester Township Police Department. Our K-9 Unit, which also features K-9 Officer Marc Micciulla and his partner Storm, continues to progress as our officers complete these important and valuable training classes,” said Chief Lisa Parker.
Ptl. Micciulla and Storm completed Patrol Class in June and are currently attending a ten week narcotic detection course. Both Storm and Lynk were purchased at no cost to Manchester Township Taxpayers, as they were purchased using money from Manchester’s Law Enforcement Trust Account, which is comprised of revenue generated from seized and forfeited assets.