Police K-9 Named for Slain Harford Deputy

Maryland State Police is paying special tribute to one of the deputies killed in Abingdon earlier this month, naming its newest K-9 after Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey.

Officer-in-Training Dailey is 10 weeks old, according to his handler Sgt. Rick Kelly.

The bloodhound puppy’s namesake was shot and killed in the line of duty Feb. 10 while responding to a call about a wanted man at the Abingdon Panera. Senior Deputy Pat Dailey was one of two Harford County Sheriff’s deputies gunned down that day, and Kelly says a second dog will be named for Deputy First Class Mark Logsdon this year.

“I went this past Sunday to pick [the puppy] up and on the way home, I was reflecting on the past week, and it just hit me,” Kelly said of naming the dog. “I want to pay my respects somehow to Pat and Mark, and Dailey just hit me.”

Kelly, who worked out of the Bel Air Barrack for three years, said that he knew Deputy Dailey from his time there.

“If you worked in Harford County, you knew Pat; he’d come to the barrack all the time,” he said. “The man was just a class act. You can’t get a man better than that.”

He said he has a relative at the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, who made sure it would be OK with the Dailey family for him to name the future K-9 officer in his honor.

• Senior Deputy Patrick Dailey, 52, of Joppa
• Deputy First Class Mark Logsdon, 43, of Fallston
• 2 Deputies Killed in Abingdon Shooting, Suspect Dead

The pup will not officially get to work until September; he is currently getting socialized.

He will be out and about with Kelly, whose current partner—a bloodhound named Dixie—is retiring at the end of the summer after 10 years of service. She will continue to live with him, and so will Dailey.

“The next bloodhound I want to name for [Deputy First Class] Mark [Logsdon] in some way, shape or form,” Kelly said.

Maryland State Police has fewer than a dozen bloodhounds on the force, according to Kelly. They help track missing persons and criminals. If tracking a criminal, Kelly said that the bloodhound will get the scent and establish the trail, then when the suspect is identified, the dog is called back and a German shepherd goes in as backup.

“Dailey is going to be finding bad guys and helping people that need to be helped,” Kelly said. “Saving lives and finding bad guys, that’s the way...”

Pictured, the newest member of the Maryland State Police K-9 Unit—K-9-in-training Dailey! “They’re very loyal, just awesome dogs that are really lovable,” Sgt. Rick Kelly said of bloodhounds. After a day’s work filled with new people and experiences, Dailey plops down in his new home. Photo Credits: Maryland State Police and Sgt. Rick Kelly.