National Police Association Podcast w/ Tony Sanborn, Pres., Arizona Law Enforcement Canine Association
Hi. This is Sergeant Betsy Brantner Smith with the National Police Association, and this is the National Police Association podcast. I have with me a local guest today, which is so much fun because Arizona law enforcement is is very near and dear to my heart because I'm a resident, and we have a very robust police dog system in this state. And and so I wanted you to meet the president of I gotta make sure I say this right. The Arizona Law Enforcement Canine Association because they are doing some great work, and I brought you the president who is also a working cop with a working police dog, and we're gonna talk about all things canine today.
Betsy Smith:Tony Sanborn, welcome to the show.
Tony Sanborn:Thank you, Betsy. Appreciate you having me on.
Betsy Smith:So I have to ask you what I ask everybody who's been in law enforcement. Tony, why'd you become a cop?
Tony Sanborn:Oh, I mean, there's always the the answer you'd give during an oral board of, you know, I wanna help my community. I wanna be able to give back. But It's for the children.
Betsy Smith:Right? All of that stuff.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. And all that is true. But, you know, the same same reason I went to canine is the same reason I became a cop. It was the idea of just going out and finding bad guys, you know, find find those violent folks that shouldn't be amongst us. And I just had this conversation the other day, actually, where I was explaining to someone that was asking about some of the things I've experienced in my career and what effect that had.
Tony Sanborn:I said, you know, it was never really a question because it always felt like a calling. I think most of your listeners who are law enforcement would probably say the same, especially if they did a full career. It really felt like it was always what you were supposed to do. And certainly having family in law enforcement made me think about it early on in my life, watching my uncle and then knowing that my dad had done that. And it made me think of of that as a career, but I always felt like it was what I was going to do and it was gonna be my career.
Tony Sanborn:Never really questioned it. I started working that direction by doing, you know, cadet programs even when I was, like, 17 years old. So
Betsy Smith:I love it. I love it. I, yeah, I was a police explorer and all that stuff and a dispatcher. And and as I continue to tell people, we never have the same day twice, and it's such a great career. I I'm really hopeful now in 2025 and beyond that we are gonna see and I think we are seeing a resurgence
Tony Sanborn:Yeah.
Betsy Smith:In in a lot of areas of this country in interest in becoming a police officer because it is. It's a really fun job. It's a great job. And I I think we're approaching that time where most people love us again. Right?
Tony Sanborn:Oh, I agree. Yeah. No. I we've we've definitely seen the pendulum go back the other direction. You know, I'm fortunate I work in the city of Scottsdale.
Tony Sanborn:We've always had great support. But being a part of our SWAT team, it takes us to do missions outside of Scottsdale and the other neighborhoods. And and, obviously, in this position, knowing a lot of our our brothers and sisters that work in other cities and, you know, they don't have the same experience. But, yeah, I was I was just thinking as you were saying that, you know, canine has really become sort of like an ambassador to the law enforcement profession because you you see the uniform, and not everybody wants to approach and talk and get to know a cop. But when they see that dog, they're like, man, I gotta know about that dog.
Tony Sanborn:So they'll come up and start a conversation. And at all our meetings, we have these discussions where, like, hey, guys. Remember what you are to the community. You know, you're that that conduit. And so what you say really goes a long way because they're gonna communicate with our canine cops a lot.
Tony Sanborn:Not to mention we do demos all the time where we're reaching out to kids and, like, you know, community leaders, but that random interaction is so important. And, you know, we we become a big recruiting tool, I think, for most of our our agencies, and we have seen a resurgence. And, you know, we just talked retirement right before this, and it's come up a lot lately for all of us. Do you really wanna leave right now? Are you not having the time of your life?
Tony Sanborn:I mean, this is a really fun job. So why leave if you're having so much fun if you enjoy what you do and it it pays good? And that's become sort of my my speech to all these folks we talk about talk to about this profession. Like, it's a fun job. That's why you see us all going twenty years, sometimes thirty years.
Tony Sanborn:And when they're meeting canine guys, they're saying that we're we're smiling, having a good time, sort of like our event we just had where we were out there having fun playing with our dogs and showing that this could be a really cool career.
Betsy Smith:So I wanna talk about this event that you just had because, you know, first of all, when we talk about police recruitment, what, you know, what are the two or three things you always see in any department's recruitment video? The k nines, the SWAT, the helicopter, the horses, the rifles, you know, all that cool stuff. And which you get to do almost all of that except I don't think you fly a helicopter. Right?
Tony Sanborn:No. No. No helicopters. I I I wish. We had it at the event.
Tony Sanborn:They came out, they were hanging out. Static display. That would be a cool job. I'd love doing that. But you're right.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. We do end up as part of that recruiting tool, and that's and that's the other big piece of this event. You know, we've become a massive recruiting tool for every agency that's invited. We give them booths because we have the space, and they can stand there at their booth and say, yeah. Did you enjoy what you saw there in that competition hall?
Tony Sanborn:Like, one day you could be canine. Just sign up right here and get some more information. And so we've heard really good feedback from our our agencies about how much follow-up they get and then recruits that they get down the road after we have our events.
Betsy Smith:So talk about this event that you just had, the largest one, you know, one of the largest ones that you've had. What's it called? And what did you guys do?
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. So it's the Desert Dog Police Canine Trials and Public Safety Expo. So kind of a mouthful, but it really states what the what it's become. It was the twenty second annual, and so we had a lot of improvement this year over the last couple of years. We're making the event as exciting as we can make it because it's a competition, and all of our canine guys are very competitive.
Tony Sanborn:And that's sort of how the roots of this event started. You know? It actually started about twenty five years ago, but there were several years it didn't happen. So that's why it was twenty second annual. But it was some canine guys hanging out in Phoenix, and I bet my dog's better than yours.
Tony Sanborn:And then it became a bunch of families that came out to Phoenix High School to their football field and watched a little one day competition, and that blossomed into the Cannon trials. We went to a couple spring training facilities. Now we've moved to Westworld, very large, event center, in Scottsdale, and we have this new mission of not just having our competition, which is great. It's exciting. The public wants to see what we do.
Tony Sanborn:And we're showing off not just our dogs, but we're showing off our officer skills too. So we'll set up some shooting drills with some munitions to show the how talented our officers are at shooting at lethal engagements. We'll show the physicality of how physically fit our officers are. You know, the very first event on Saturday morning was extreme tag with with your canine. So it was a full sprint chasing the decoy with dogs and muzzle, and they were trying to basically get away.
Tony Sanborn:But then we'll also show off driving skills. We were able to do, like, some pursuit driving, set up a mock course with a side by side with lights and sirens. So that's all entertaining for the crowd, but at the same time, it does show off just how talented and effective our canine teams can be. But then you go into the public safety expo, and that hits our mission for Alika, which is our mission is tease, train, equip, educate, and support. Training will always be our number one.
Tony Sanborn:We raise money, we're a five zero one c three, but we do it to to further that mission of making sure no canine handler is ever told for budgetary reasons they can't train because it's just unacceptable. So our training is free to our members, and it's some of the best in the country. But the education portion is portion is really for the public. We found that when you you mentioned that little pendulum that we've had with support, and we found that there a lot of that was rooted in just ignorance and with people not really knowing a lot about what we do. And at this day and age of of information at your fingertips, it really doesn't make any sense for us to hide the ball anymore.
Tony Sanborn:You know? We have policies. We have procedures. We have tactics. We have things that we do that we can share with the public.
Tony Sanborn:You know, the technology advances we're making now. There's no secret there. They they wanna know. How are we utilizing robots? How are we utilizing cameras?
Tony Sanborn:What is AI doing for us? You know? So this expo has all of that on display. We bring those folks out, and they're there in the North Hall. They have a booth set up, and the public makes their rounds talking to each and every one of these officers and detectives that are in these units and finding out what we're doing and how we do it.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. It's interesting to them if they want, like, pursued as a career potentially, but certainly our our citizens are learning a lot about what we do. And then the next time they go watch a video on the news with a fisheye lens from your body cam that only shows so much, they'll have a whole new perspective when they're watching because they said, I talked to a cannon handler, and I know why they use police dogs. I think I got an idea of why he did that. It doesn't look great on camera.
Tony Sanborn:Sounds even worse. But the citizen will have their own personal knowledge, and they don't have to be influenced by whatever they may be hearing from the newscaster or the whatever talking head is explaining what they're watching on that video. So it's it's a huge part of our mission, and we get massive support across the board from our agencies for having that expo portion, and we get such good turnout because we don't want to be the Scottsdale show. Right? It is it is every agency out there bringing their specialized equipment and all their leaders present doing, you know, town hall, talks essentially and answering questions for the public in that North Hall as well.
Betsy Smith:You know, we saw you know, you can go back to 2014 to, the Ferguson riots, and then, of course, the George Floyd riots of twenty twenty, which you dealt with in Scottsdale. And and we see these little snippets on social media or on the news of canines, you know, supposedly being deployed just to harass people and and this and that. Talk about the reality of using a canine for crowd control.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. And, you know, it's funny because you see those procedures and those tactics. Again, no no more hiding the ball. The public needs to know that our position on the skirmish line has changed. If you find a canine up on the skirmish line, it's likely because something has gone very wrong.
Tony Sanborn:You know, the days of, you know, the imagery of the the South and civil rights era of having a dog out at the end of a leash with the big teeth coming out, that's kinda gone by the wayside. You know? We've really become more part of this rapid response plan where we arrive in armor along with impact munitions, potentially more of a a lethal force option because some area of that civil unrest has become beyond the protest. And they've asked for that rapid response team to move into that area and start dispersing gas, impact munitions, basically move that group at all costs because it's become more more dangerous than just your typical civil unrest. So it's rare to see us out there on the front lines anymore.
Tony Sanborn:If we do, it's because we're either just arriving or a flank has been, you know, taken over. I'm not gonna get into the tactics too much. It's not my expertise of running our our mobile field force units. But I know in Scottsdale, for example, we don't work on the skirmish line anymore. It used to be if a protester broke the skirmish line, they were fair game for us.
Tony Sanborn:But we really don't operate in that space anymore. You know? It's really more of a rapid deployment team.
Betsy Smith:So I wanna talk about your dogs personally. How long have you been a canine handler? How many dogs have you had? Bragging by your partners a little.
Tony Sanborn:So sixteen years in canine. This is my third dog. He's gonna retire at the first part of this next coming year. Outstanding career. Great working dog.
Tony Sanborn:I mean, if I could clone him, I would. I was very fortunate to have him these last eight years. So I'll work my next dog will likely be my last. So that'll take me into retirement, god willing. But, yeah, the the the brag part, you know, that's kinda where that competition part comes from is, you know, he's a stellar dog.
Tony Sanborn:I never get to compete with him because I'm running the event, but he would have been outstanding as a competitor. And it's a labor of love. Right? Like, we train, and some people wanna know, well, what's the upkeep like? What is how do you get a canine into the canine unit?
Tony Sanborn:Well, you know, you get it from a breeder or a vendor, and sometimes they have some foundational training, sometimes not. You know, the the market is so competitive right now for good working dogs. Some of these vendors are saying here, he's green. I had no time to train him. Well, what's the discount?
Tony Sanborn:Well, there is none. Same price. So have at it. And that dog will be sold in a in a in a heartbeat. So you get their basic training done, and that usually takes anywhere from, you know, six to ten weeks depending on which academy you go to and how much training they have.
Tony Sanborn:But then it's a labor of love after that. You know, you're gonna do something every day with that dog because it's a working breed, and they need to be worked. They don't get to just they're not plug and play. You know, they'll they'll terrorize you and become a liability if you don't work them because that's how their mind is. But then the physicality of it as well.
Tony Sanborn:And every there's one day out of every week that almost every unit makes their training day, so they'll spend and that's just maintenance. And that's a ten hour shift spent training the dog altogether. Everybody gets together, puts together scenarios, drills, making sure the dog is is meeting the proficiency. And then, of course, we have to recertify every year through some sort of a national, nationally recognized, group. Like, we NPCA would be example, National Police Canine Association.
Tony Sanborn:You know, the legal standard for it is they wanna know the the supreme court says the dog has to be proven to be trained and reliable. And you could do that just through your training logs, but it's a huge benefit if you're gonna go into a courtroom that you also do an annual certification to prove that that training and reliability is there.
Betsy Smith:And that's a a big part of it is you have to, a a canine handler, because a a a police canine, a bite, especially a bite dog, it's a tool, and, and it's a tool that can be, misused. And, so you have to be able to prove, not just to your boss, but to a court of law that this dog did the right thing, is proficient, and that you are proficient, the handler. Right?
Tony Sanborn:Correct. Yeah. It's both. When we're tested, it's both. Yeah.
Tony Sanborn:And, It's not just a tool. It's a living, breathing, thinking tool. So it it can operate on its own. And so one of the unique things about being a canine and part of that selection process for handler is you're not only thinking about whatever critical incident you're involved in as far as yourself, but you're also thinking for your dog at the same time. And so it's that extra added stress and multitasking as you're trying to, you know, make decisions in split seconds.
Tony Sanborn:And so, yeah, the liability is high. K nine unit liability is high, and you know you you you ran that program for a while. Second highest liability behind the SWAT team. You know? People get hurt typically when we're deploying, and so we have to, make sure that how we deploy and the way the dog is being utilized falls within our policies, falls within the law, and just general good, you know, common sense discretion and decisions.
Betsy Smith:Talk a minute about and this has always been a debate, you know, when we talk about a police canine. There will be situations, you know, lethal situations where somebody will say, well, why didn't they just send the dog in? And and and, you know, which is send the dog in to get shot, basically, which happens. And but talk about what goes into that kind of decision making. Because, again, you know, you love your dog.
Betsy Smith:People love their dogs, but that dog also represents a significant financial, you know, asset to the agency. Right? Talk about that kind of difficult decision making.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. You hit on a couple of really critical points, really. I mean, you talk about, yes. He's the dog is expensive. Is it does it go into our tactical decision making?
Tony Sanborn:No. We're always we're we're we utilize the canine because they bring back tactical advantage to us. Right? We're always working in a environment where we are reactive. When we utilize canine, we now have made the suspect have to change his plan.
Tony Sanborn:Now he's the one thinking. We are the the the action, and action is faster than reaction. So it gives us that split second advantage back to us as the canine works ahead of us and goes into danger prior to us. Now decision making wise, and you say use the word love. Right?
Tony Sanborn:We fight that so hard. We fight so hard not to fall in love with them because ultimately that is a tool that exists on the use of force continuum. Canine exists as an intermediate weapon. And so I don't fall in love with my taser. I don't worry about my taser being broken.
Tony Sanborn:Right? I need to be able to put that utilize that tool in a split second and have no hesitation because of any sort of personal connection to it. And so is that possible? We're human. Right?
Tony Sanborn:And that dog is with us more than our family, because he's at home with us, and he goes to work with us. So it's hard not to kinda love him. But at the same time, we have to always remember that it's a tool. He saves people's lives, not just ours, the officers, which is obvious how he does that, but he also saves a suspect's life. So when a canine is effectively utilized, we don't have to bump up on the use force continuum.
Tony Sanborn:We stay at intermediate because the canine was effective. Well, as you know, the only other level above it would be deadly force. Right? So if we have a can effective canine deployment, we're saving the life of the suspect because we didn't have to jump to the next level because something in the intermediate realm was ineffective. So it's always a battle for us to make sure we're remembering exactly what that dog is and that there will come a time as long as we, you know, god willing and making good decisions, that that dog will retire and become ours.
Tony Sanborn:But until then, he's gonna go into harm's way. You know, we can't hesitate when he's the proper tool for the job he needs to be utilized. And I've had a dog that was shot on deployment, and I was able to save his life. And I was very fortunate that we had done enough training because he was shot, and it wasn't you know, it was no small wound. It ended up being in his carotid artery.
Tony Sanborn:And so he bled. So it was 75% of his total blood volume got put back into him. He spent four hours fighting for his life, and that's just a testament to how tough this breed is because he did pull through and had a great retired life. Didn't go back to work. Actually, made it back to work, but then retired because he had laryngeal paralysis because he was shot in the neck, but we didn't find out till it got hot.
Tony Sanborn:So he made it back to work. Great story. Then retired, became more like my wife's dog and stayed home and lived a great retired life, but would rather have worked for sure. But in that moment, it was still you have we can't put the dog intentionally into harm's way. He's not bulletproof.
Tony Sanborn:As an Alika president and knowing our mission, we buy bulletproof vests for dogs. We love what they can potentially do for them. We know the reality is the coverage of that vest is only in certain areas. And so dogs still get shot wearing bulletproof vests, and they still die in the line of duty.
Betsy Smith:Just like cops.
Tony Sanborn:Just like cops. And we know that the canines that are on our memorial down at the state capital, we can point at each name and tell the story of, yeah, that dog died in the line of duty, but you know how many cops he saved? Because all of our tactics changed, we realized that the suspect was actually armed, and so we didn't make entry. It wasn't one of us going through that door. Those officers went home to their families.
Tony Sanborn:K and I didn't have a family. He didn't have a wife that was waiting on him to come home. He wasn't a provider. So they sacrificed themselves for us, and we will always honor them if they end up giving the ultimate sacrifice. But that is their job, to save lives.
Tony Sanborn:Ours, the citizens, other officers, and and the suspects.
Betsy Smith:Now we, in law enforcement, have we've made this transition over the last, I'd say, twenty, twenty five years, from primarily German shepherds. And, again, I grew up with Rin Tin Tin and all that stuff on TV. But now we've really transitioned to in The especially in The United States, you know, we see primarily Malinois, although, you know, we do see some Dutch Shepherds, some German Shepherds. Talk about a little bit about what you prefer and and the things that you like and don't like about those breeds.
Tony Sanborn:Okay. Alright. Well, then prepare yourself in the comment section for some of the hate mail now because
Betsy Smith:I know. Because it's very personal. This is I I just have to say this. This is along the lines. This question is like, why do you like your Glock, you know, and and not your with the Wesson.
Betsy Smith:Why do you like your nine millimeter your nine millimeter as opposed to your 45, all that? I always have to ask this because everybody has very specific thoughts on this.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. They do. And and you're right. We the unofficially, I think about fifteen years ago, maybe twenty now, it was kinda determined that the Malinois had taken over from the German Shepherd as the primary working breed. Now on paper, they're a better investment as a piece of equipment that the city owns and has to maintain.
Tony Sanborn:The Malinois is an extremely durable breed, so you're gonna get more working life out of that dog. You're also putting less money into it in the form of arthritis medication and potential surgeries because we know the German shepherd had some issues. Right? The breed itself had issues with hip dysplasia, arthritis, and so it's a very physical job for a dog. A lot of up and down out of the car and hitting suspects in the bite suit and in real life.
Tony Sanborn:And so on paper, it makes sense why a Malinois would be the preferred breed. But if you ask guys who run the dogs, you got guys that still love their German Shepherds. But generally speaking, and I like to throw a lot of emphasis on generally speaking because, you know, you find variations within the breed, but you're gonna find that Malinois, and this is hard to argue, were traditionally a higher energy breed. And if you can take all that energy and you can harness it and focus it in one direction, man, it's like an unstoppable force. It's incredibly effective tool.
Tony Sanborn:Whereas German shepherds, so we we like to use the numbers like 80% prey, 20% defense is our Malinois, and that's kinda what we're looking for. German shepherds, you might see more like a sixty forty prey to defense. What that means to your viewers is prey drive is that hunt drive, that desire to just go get the prey, and they will stop at nothing. That defense drive is really built more on self preservation. Some people call it smart.
Tony Sanborn:Like, you look at a German Shepherd and go, he's smarter. Well, yeah, in a way, he's just got a little higher defense. He has has a little more concern for his own well-being, which is not necessarily what we want in the law enforcement world. I'll make decisions for the dog when it comes to his safety. I'm gonna factor in everything about whether or not he could or could not be utilized here.
Tony Sanborn:Will he get hurt? Is it you know, and I'll make those decisions. I just need to know if I point him in a direction and I say go that way, find bad guy and bite, then he's gonna do it. I can't have, let's say, a German Shepherd who's maybe a little more in that balanced range, air quotes, the prey to defense, take a moment to stop and think, oh, you know, this there's a bear armored vehicle that's loud. There's an LRAD is somebody's yelling into that.
Tony Sanborn:There's flash bangs going off in the back, and there's windows being, you know, broken out by the SWAT team members and yelling going on. You know, in all in all truth, like, a wolf would look at that situation and go, no pride for me. This is gonna get me hurt. I'm not going that way. That's how they continue to live and hunt and stay in the fight.
Tony Sanborn:Whereas our Malinois just go, no problem. You tell me there's someone to bite that way, let's go. You know, there's smoke pouring out of the windows and they're like, yeah, go time. Once they've seen it and they know there's a there's a treat, there's a reward back there, they're going. And so we like that, you know, and so that's why you saw that breed really take off because once you gotta figure out how to harness all that energy and all that prey drive, man, what an incredible working dog.
Tony Sanborn:You know? But still plenty of great so let's, you know, speak here's here's to the German shepherd lovers. Plenty of great German shepherds still out there working and doing great police work. So
Betsy Smith:Now these are not the only two breeds, and and and bite work is not the only, you know, thing that a a police canine does. Talk for just a minute about some of the other we were talking about this off the air. There, you know, there's bomb dogs. There's tracking dogs. There's drug dogs.
Betsy Smith:There's you you know, just fill people in on what kind of dogs you have in the competition and as a member of your association.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. Yeah. You talk about an expanded mission. Yeah. We're really kinda all inclusive now.
Tony Sanborn:So you mentioned the detection specialty dogs. Right? Most most agencies wanna run a dual purpose dog. So you get a Malinois, a shepherd, or a Dutch shepherd, and you'll run them you'll get them trained up on patrol work. You'll find them by bad guys, locate evidence.
Tony Sanborn:Then the detection side, you can choose what does your agency need. Do we need a narcotics dog right now? Do we need a bomb dog right now? City of Scottsdale, for example, we have a lot of large public events, like Waste Management Phoenix Open and Barrett Jackson. And so we have a high need for bomb dogs.
Tony Sanborn:So we have four in our city. And then when you get in the single purpose world of just detection, you know, we're looking for those dogs that just have an extremely high play drive. The breed really doesn't matter. You know? It could be anything.
Tony Sanborn:We could have a dog you know, one of there's a there's a famous cannon handler that I say famous. If he listens to this, he'd laugh. Mark Green retired out of Phoenix PD, and he was sort of a guru in the world of narcotics detection dogs. He used to love to brag because he went down to the Humane Society and found some dog that had one eye going this direction and one ear that was up and the other ear that was down and just scraggly hair, goofy looking. You know?
Tony Sanborn:Who knows? He was 1% of everything. And he had a just an outrageous play drive. And so he turned that dog into a really, really killer narcotics detection dog. Goofy looking guy, but great detection dog because he had high play drive.
Tony Sanborn:But that expanded mission for us, for our organization, just this past year, we added our therapy dogs to our membership because they need training as well. And therapy dogs have become a huge, huge advancement in the world of law enforcement for our school resource officers. So you have now our therapy dogs getting the representation they need and reaching out to different agencies and showing them how these programs work, showing all the success we've had at these different programs going into the schools, you know, speaking to some of our school resource officers, they'll they'll say it was a game changer. You know, they would work in their office and do their best to reach out to some of the young, you know, high school students and see what they could do to, you know, address any issues they were having and get moderate responses. They showed up and started having those therapy dogs, these sweet, cuddly, little fluffy things that everybody wants to hug.
Tony Sanborn:And they said, man, everybody was coming to their wanted to pet the dog. Some were having anxiety attacks. Some were shutting down. Some were depressed. They'd spend twenty, thirty minutes in their office, talk about whatever is going on, speak to the officer, form a personal relationship and a bond.
Tony Sanborn:The officer needed to do police work at that point. They'd obviously do it. But in some cases, the the student just felt better after the interaction and be able to go back to school and finish out their day. So, you know, dogs have that power, and we need to use that more often. You know?
Tony Sanborn:That that is a a place where the the times are really changing.
Betsy Smith:Yeah. There's actually science behind that. You know? The our release of cortisol when we're looking at the dog and the dog's looking at us and and all that. And and I'm so glad you brought up therapy dogs because they're also good for for us, right, for the cops.
Tony Sanborn:Oh, yeah. 100%. Yeah. And they'll come out to, you know, critical incidents and hang out. You know, we've had a police crisis intervention service in Scottsdale for many years now.
Tony Sanborn:One of the first canine programs within PCIS in the country became sort of a template for others to follow. And they'd show up to every scene, and they'd be out there and they'd have the dog, and the dog would just kinda sense that stress and work around the officers while they're waiting for their opportunity to be interviewed or whatever it may be. And, yeah, just as you said, the science of it, the way the cortisol gets released and the way that stress hormone just starts to come down a little bit. And, yeah, very effective tool and great as we see now this this change happening amongst our youth as the generations go on, as you look at our our high school students, you know, with whatever those stressors may may be that are adding to that. But the dog has been great.
Tony Sanborn:The the canines in the schools has been an amazing program. So we're really gonna push that hard through our organization because that's what we do. We're gonna find money. We're gonna find training. We're gonna make these guys better.
Tony Sanborn:We're gonna make the programs expand. We're gonna, you know, provide guidance to any agencies that wanna start a a therapy dog program. That's really part of our mission now too.
Betsy Smith:Tony, talk about what Alika needs from the public and how people can support them.
Tony Sanborn:Yeah. So the needs. Well, we're a five one c three. So we we we we're nonprofit, and we put the non in nonprofit. We we scrape by.
Tony Sanborn:We get amazing corporate support. We've developed a great corporate partnership with a few different companies. Circle K primarily has been amazing. The Grand Canyon division is the the most profitable in all of Circle K global, And they found us and said, well, I really love what you guys are doing. They found us about eight years ago.
Tony Sanborn:So we love what you're doing. We love to support it. And every year, they've gotten more more and more behind us and in the form of money and any support they could give in any other way. So they are a fantastic organization. They help keep the lights on for us for sure.
Tony Sanborn:But our mission is expanding, and we're not gonna stop. So we're always looking for donations from the public. We're looking for ways to expand that training, make our training better. You know, if we're able to train our officers more, if we're able to get more of them into the trainings because we have limits right now based on funds, then we're gonna save more lives. And I can't think of a more valuable mission than that.
Tony Sanborn:But the equipment, the life saving equipment that we purchase, whether it be agencies that just aren't as well funded, we can get them simple stuff, leashes, harnesses, hot and pops. The dog doesn't die in the in the car in the hot airs on the summer. We'll approve vests for the dogs to make sure they're safe, but we can go beyond that. Right? We can we can purchase the actual dog for them.
Tony Sanborn:A lot of agencies reach out because they wanna start a program or expand their program. Well, if they have the resources there in place to do it, well, then we'll support that. We'll find the funds, and we'll get their police dog paid for and maybe even beyond that. But the education we talked about, but then the overall support, you know, the things that we're doing in the community on a daily basis and the way we support our officers just in aftercare when canads become retired. You know, if a handler reaches out to us and is having an issue with care or maintenance for the dog, like, they deserve a good retired life, you know, because a lot of our our public probably doesn't realize that the responsibility of the dog is signed over to the handler after retirement.
Tony Sanborn:It's really there's no retirement plan for the dogs. That is on the handler and his family. And so after many years of work, you can imagine there's some vet bills that go into that. And so they deserve a good retired life. And so if they need support in that way, we'll do that.
Tony Sanborn:So that's where our mission really is is focused. Funds are huge. We got plans right now to start to reach out to the state of Arizona and see if we get more support considering we're doing so much training of our own law enforcement officers here, our own government employees. So we're in we're we're we're working towards that. And so when you talk about what do we need, support in that way.
Tony Sanborn:You know, if the time comes that we want to maybe have a bill that gets through the state legislature, we'd love for the public to support that because it doesn't have to be always monetary. It could just be that you're explaining to your congressperson or the way you vote that you'd love to see the police dogs be more supported.
Betsy Smith:Where can people find the association, Tony?
Tony Sanborn:Our website, arizona law enforcement canine association, uh,.com. And then we also have a pretty, robust Instagram. So our I think our Facebook hasn't been updated in a while, but, our Instagram is fun, especially now with all the videos coming in from the canine trials this past weekend. There's some good fun stuff in there. So go to both of those those those locations, and you can find all the information about us, who we are, how to contact us if you wanna reach out.
Tony Sanborn:But, also, obviously, that donate button button is in there as well, which is huge for us.
Betsy Smith:Absolutely. Tony Sanborn, we cannot thank you enough for taking time out to talk to our audience about police canines and all the amazing things that they do and all the great things that ALICA is doing for them, not just in the state of Arizona, but in The United States. Thanks so much. And if you'd like more information about the National Police Association, you can visit us at nationalpolice.org.
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Narrator:Consider going to nationalpolice.org and donating to keep us in the fight. Together, we can win. That is nationalpolice.org.
