Here's Why Darien Police Won't Immediately Replace Their Retired K9

DARIEN, CT — Last month, Darien Police K9 Kenny, a Labrador Retriever, retired after five-plus years of service, leaving K9 Argo as the department's top dog.

During the town's quarterly department updates to the Board of Selectmen this week, Darien Police Chief Donald Anderson was asked about bringing in a replacement for Kenny. He said that there are no plans at the present time, mostly because of the legalization of cannabis in the state of Connecticut, and what's expected with regards to use of force.

"As most folks know, K9s are trained one or two ways, but they're trained to sniff out narcotics. With the legalization of the cannabis bill, you really can't retrain a dog," Anderson said.

Anderson said dogs are almost fully trained by the time the department receives them. Then it takes about a month to get a dog acclimated with its handler.

"When this dog retires, we would get a replacement dog that is trained to exclude cannabis," Anderson said, noting that Argo has "a couple of good years left on his four legs."

The expectations when it comes to use of force is also changing things for K9s, Anderson said.

"They're tracking dogs, but what they're trained to do is hold a criminal at bay," Anderson said. "Even that is changing as far as what people expect on the use of force when it comes to K9s. It's an industry in flux right now in terms of how K9s will be used going forward."

According to the Darien police website, the K9 unit was established in 2009 with the hiring of K9 Zulu as a full-time addition to the patrol division. Zulu, a German Shepherd, retired in 2016.

That year, the department brought in Argo, and K9 Grizzly, a chocolate Lab who died in 2017. Kenny joined the force in 2017 and was paired with officer Leslie Silva.

Argo is on call 24 hours per day, seven days a week with officer Amanda Hinkley.