North Strabane police getting K9 officer
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger this week tossed a grant to North Strabane Township as its police department prepares to launch its K9 program.
Township police Chief Brian Hughes announced Tuesday Ben Roethlisberger Foundation gave his department a $13,500 grant that will be spent to purchase and train the new police dog beginning in April.
That adds to the more than $14,000 the community has raised over the past year.
“The community really likes things like that,” Hughes said. “There have been quite a few people who live in North Strabane who have supported this initiative and can’t be more excited about having this dog. It’s been started by the community and was received well by the police department and is finally coming to fruition.”
Hughes said Officer Matthew Mancini, a nine-year veteran of the department, was selected to become the police dog’s handler. He will begin training with the dog, which has yet to be chosen, at Castle’s K-9 in Mechanicsburg April 8 and should be ready for service the following month, Hughes said.
The police dog will be used for routine patrols and drug detection, he said.
“All of us here, even the officers who weren’t selected, are excited,” Hughes said. “It’s a great tool to have a dog working for tracking and sniffing, and even on the occasions when you need to use the dog for force.”
Hughes estimated it will cost close to $80,000 to start the K9 program with additional expenses to purchase a new sport utility vehicle, equip it to hold the dog and care for the animal. One expense the township won’t have to incur is dog food after Purina offered to feed the animal for the length of its life.
North Strabane is the second community in Washington County to receive a grant from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation in the past year. The city of Washington received $10,000 from the quarterback’s foundation last February before that police department restarted its K9 program in June.
Other communities in Western Pennsylvania that received money from the foundation in this latest round of grants include Springdale, New Castle, Penn Hills and Monaca.