Hillsboro Police Perform 'Last Call' for K9

Hillsboro Police Department personnel said farewell to one of their own last night.

HPD K9 Odie passed away March 9 after his handler, Officer Denise Lemen-Sipp, discovered her longtime partner had developed cancer.

“For a working dog, Odie lasted a long time,” HPD spokesman Lt. Henry Reimann told Patch Friday morning.

The longhaired, pure bred German Shepherd was active on the force for nine years, Reimann said, having been taken in by the HPD while still a pup.

Odie was about 10 years old, he said.

Typically, Reimann continued, K9 officers will rotate out after five or six years of active duty, with hip issues the common cause of retirement.

Odie, however, was still on active duty at the time of his passing, and just three years ago celebrated an historic achievement for the HPD.

In January 2014, Odie became “the first operational, dual-certified police K9 in the history of the Hillsboro Police K9 Unit” after he and Lemen-Sipp passed an Oregon Police Canine Association test allowing Odie to work as a narcotics-tracking K9, according to an Oregonian article from February 2014.

Reimann said in a statement that after Odie’s passing Thursday night, on duty Hillsboro Officers paid tribute to the veteran K9 through a "last call" ceremony: Dispatchers made a formal call requesting Odie to respond by radio, Reimann said.

After no response, three bells were rung and some words were spoken in deference to Odie’s time on the force.

Photo Courtest: Lt. Henry Reimann, Hillsboro Police Department