GATESVILLE, Texas (KXXV) — “Typically, when someone puts on a bite suit and steps out, it tends to draw a little bit of a crowd,” James Ashley, Patrol Sergeant and K-9 Handler with the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office, said.
In order to serve and protect the community, local law enforcement must practice and stay prepared.
“We get deployed in all types of areas when the public calls us, so we try to environmentalize the dogs to get used to areas wherever we are called,” Trent Willingham, Patrol Corporal and K-9 Handler with the Coryell County Sheriff’s Office, said.
“We try to utilize everything in the community because that’s who ultimately is going to be calling us, and we want to be as prepared as possible.”
Wellingham said that communication with the community is just as important. However, some neighbors have said they don’t always know about training sessions and often mistake them for emergencies.
The Coryell County Sheriff's Office is working to close this communication gap.
Right now, they use Facebook to notify residents. Still, Wellingham and Ashley said it can be difficult to reach everyone.
“We train nonstop. As far as communication with the public, there are times we are training out here from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. because that’s the only time we have available to train,” Ashley said.
Despite the challenges, Wellingham said that they notify the public as much as possible and are open to finding new solutions to the problem. They encourage neighbors to share their ideas on how they would like to be informed about training sessions.
“That’s how the public can help us out. If they want to see us active on a certain platform or hear from us in a different way, then we can make that happen without a doubt,” Wellingham said.
Nationwide, law enforcement is required to train for a minimum of 16 hours a month. Officers in Coryell County report they sometimes train up to 85 hours a month, all in efforts to help keep the community safe.
