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If there were a criminal’s handbook, you would think there would be a chapter on police dogs and why running from them is rarely a good idea.
Sadly, for Cheyenne man Joseph Girone, there is no chapter or handbook, as he learned the hard way when he was being arrested on Thursday for a felony warrant at a local diner.
The Cheyenne Police succeeded with Girone’s arrest thanks to the help of K9 Pavel, who took him down almost immediately after the dog was let loose.
It’s unfortunate for him that he didn’t see a video shot by a Casper Rotary Club earlier this week demonstrating how police dogs do their jobs. It would have been much less painful for him.
Rotary Club Assistant Governor Albon Shaw donned a giant Michelin-Man-like padded suit to demonstrate the effectiveness of police dogs.
The idea for Shaw to be the guinea pig came from his wife, he said, who was attending the Rotary Club meeting where a police officer was talking about how police dogs sniff out drugs.
She then told the Rotary Club that her husband would love to show how police dogs take people down. Then she informed him.
“My wife ‘volun-told’ me I was going to do it,” Shaw told Cowboy State Daily.
Banjo, the Casper Police dog, couldn’t wait to go after Shaw.
In about one second the rotarian was down and the Casper PD was pulling the dog off of him.
“They are trained to never let you go,” Shaw said. “Until they are told to let you go, they are trained to not let go until they are called off.”
As for the experience, Shaw said he experienced a range of emotions from “nerve-wracking” at the beginning when he saw how anxious the dog was to go after him to “exhilarating” after it was all done and the dog was released from his body.
He said any exposure from the demonstration is a positive because it gives attention to the hard work of Casper’s law enforcement community.
“I feel our law enforcement is often under-appreciated and they put so much work and training into keeping our communities safe,” he said. “The dogs are great ambassadors for our police department.”
It’s too late for the Cheyenne man who was taken down Thursday, but Shaw had advice for future suspected criminals.
“I would strongly discourage ever, ever running away from a police dog,” Shaw said. “I don’t care how fast you are or how athletic you think you are, the dog is going to kick your butt.”
