Officer Khyrell Baggoo and Bruno

When Westerville Division of Police (WPD) K9 Fiji retired in January after seven years of service, WPD began the process of finding the right fit of dog and officer to continue the program. They found Officer Khyrell Baggoo, who joined WPD in 2017. Officer Baggoo applied for the K9 program in 2020 to fulfill a goal he made as a young law enforcement cadet in the WPD Explorer program.

K9 Bruno is a 5 year old Belgian Malinois imported from Germany in 2020 by Storm Dog Tactical LLC. Bruno is a dual purpose K9 trained in patrol and narcotics detection. The patrol disciplines include building searches, apprehension, article search and handler protection. Bruno is trained to detect the odor of illegal narcotics including Heroin, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, and Crack cocaine. As a team, Ofc. Baggoo and K9 Bruno passed the OPOTA K9 certification in November of 2020, and have completed such certification annually. 

K9 Bruno’s nose has proven to be a valuable asset to the City of Westerville and Westerville Division of Police. Bruno has logged over 200 deployments, including narcotics detection, area searches, building searches and K9 demonstrations. Bruno has assisted in locating fleeing suspects on multiple occasions. Additionally, Bruno has assisted in seizing over 38 lbs of methamphetamine, 6.5 lbs of fentanyl, along with heroin and crack cocaine. K9 Bruno has assisted many central Ohio agencies including Columbus PD, Delaware County SO, OSHP and many others for narcotics detection as well as searching for fleeing suspects. K9 Bruno and Ofc. Baggoo has also logged over 1170 hours of training since certifying. 

Officer Mark Wojciechowski and Chloe

For the first time, the WPD expanded the K9 program with the adoption of a yellow labrador retriever to assist the Community Services Bureau with special events and programs including the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) education curriculum for students in Westerville City Schools. Meet Chloe, WPD’s first K9 therapy officer.

Chloe joins Officer Mark Wojciechowski (known as Officer Wojo), a 15-year WPD veteran who manages the DARE partnership with Westerville schools. DARE officers are specially trained professionals who help students understand decision making about safe and healthy lifestyle and saying no to drugs and substance abuse. Young Chloe is training with Officer Wojo on this mission as well as a variety of other duties including offering comfort and support to those who have experienced traumatic events and making appearances at city events.

Read full article here.

See WBNS10TV news story about Chloe here.