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June 23, 2008
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'Sophisticated' K-9 units help Mass. cops
By Lisa Redmond
The Lowell Sun BILLERICA, Mass. — Before Lt. Gordon Clark leaves his Townsend home to go to work at the Middlesex Sheriff's Office, he gets his partner out of the dog house. Lox, a 6-year-old pure bred German shepherd, has been Clark's K-9 partner in fighting crime for the past three years. Lox is at Clark's side sniffing for drugs, weapons and missing people, as well as teaching other dogs the ropes as part of Middlesex Sheriff James DiPaola's K-9 Unit. Clark, 53, who has 32 years with the sheriff's office, says he could retire at any time, but he continues to work because he is passionate about what he does. As a reward for that passion, Clark was recently honored as the "Officer of the Year" as part of National Correctional Officers Week. "Lt. Clark's courage is second to none, and he is without doubt a hero because of his service and the enormous amounts of narcotics that have been removed from the streets,'' DiPaola said at the recent awards ceremony. In 2007, the sheriff's four-member K-9 unit and K9-units from around the county, all trained by Clark, seized: 8,000 grams of cocaine, 2,000 grams of heroin, 80 pounds of marijuana, and $2.5 million in drug-smeared cash, according to the sheriff's office. The dogs have sniffed out 50 "drug hides" within cars, found 50 weapons, done 30 school searches, arrested 50 felons and tracked 20 missing or wanted persons. Since he was first trained as a handler in 1981, Clark has trained about 40 dogs. The Middlesex Sheriff's Office has five dogs, and other towns, including Westford and Tewksbury, have turned to Clark to train their K-9 units. Having a K-9 unit is costly, but effective, Clark said. Dogs are prescreened and can cost more than $5,000 each. Lox came from the German capital city of Berlin. The dogs and their handlers undergo 26 weeks of intensive training; 16 weeks of patrol school and 10 weeks of narcotics training. Clark's specialty is narcotics training. It is a falsehood that dogs get addicted to drugs, Clark said. It is a question of training. An in-service training is required each month to keep the skills sharp. "Gone are the days of the junkyard dog," he said. "The dogs we have now are sophisticated." It's a job that requires a huge commitment. The dogs live with their handlers, who are essentially on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he said. A devoted family man, Clark said his wife, Patricia, an administrative assistant for the Townsend police; their son, Paul, a Wellfleet police officer; and their daughter, Kaitlin, a nurse; have accepted his passion. But drug dealers are not so appreciative of Clark's hard work. A dog like Lox is cross trained for sniffing out drugs and tracking people. Last June, Clark and Lox responded to a mutual-aid request from Littleton and Westford for a missing teen with suicidal tendencies. After a two-hour hike through the woods, Lox found the teen safe s the loft of a barn. "It's a good feeling,'' Clark said. "Not every person we go after is a bad person.'' Clark has had three K-9 partners over the years: Rocky, Caro and now, Lox. When Rocky and Caro "retired," Clark brought them to live out their final years at his house. "These dogs made sure I came home at night. I owe it to them to take care of them until the day I die," he said. While Clark views Lox as a partner and a member of his family, the K-9 partners are never a pet, he said. Clark's family has two pets, a Yorkie named Bam Bam and his Shih tzu, Jack. Copyright 2008 The Lowell Sun
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