K-9 officer Maris retires from duty

The Thermopolis Police Department retired one of its most respected officers at midnight on Dec. 31. Maris, unlike other TPD members, was unique for her sense of smell and sight. She also had four legs.

The departments only canine unit spent just over four years on the force serving and protecting Hot Springs County residents with her nose, ears and wagging tail.

Maris's arrival to Thermopolis began five years ago when Mandy Wilson, a patrol officer at that time, sought a program to help the department acquire and train a dog. "It's a beneficial tool," Wilson said. One that would use its unique sense abilities to enforce laws.

Wilson soon found a program through the National Association of Chiefs of Police, or NACOP, that provided matching funding for expenses necessary to train and keep a canine unit.

According to the NACOP K-9 Placement Program, "Police K-9s are law enforcement officers' best non-lethal aid in the prevention and detection of crime. They save time, money and more importantly, officer's lives." Together with the program, Thermopolis locals raised $4,660, which was matched by a NACOP grant for a total of $9,320.

"We placed some ads in the paper," said Wilson. "The community donated, and even people from Worland."

After the money was raised, Wilson traveled to Sturgis, S.D., in early August 2010 to pick up her new partner, Maris. Wilson spent time bonding with Maris before she again traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to spend a week training with Maris at Midwest K-9, the group that originally sold Maris to the TPD.

In Iowa, Wilson learned how to use Maris as a crucial tool in drug detection work. She trained with Dennis George, owner and co-founder of Midwest K-9 who has 28 years law enforcement experience and 20 years experience training and handling narcotics K-9.

Maris and Wilson learned how to pair up to work through "hides", which were drug-detection trails. Drugs, or the scent of drugs, would be hidden in cars or rooms and Maris and Wilson would learn how to team up to find the contraband. The then three year-old Maris and Wilson returned to Thermopolis to put their training to use.

Wilson stepped down from the force about a year following, leading police chief Mark Nelson to approach officer Bobbi Zupan about training with the four-legged officer. Zupan then traveled to Des Moines to undergo the same training as Wilson.

"He [Dennis George] had a shop and he would put hides out, He would take her and show me how she works. We just did constant training all week," said Zupan. Her training also involved runs at offices and schools, all concluding in a timed certification program that featured real-life scenarios in both buildings and vehicles.

According to Zupan, who already has sixteen years experience in law enforcement, noted that Maris's switch from one handler to another handler is challenging. "Not all handlers work the same," she said, adding, "It can get frustrating. You have to learn your dog, to learn to trust your dog. It took us a little bit of time to get together, and once we learned how to trust each other it came along really well."

It helped that Maris was able to live with Zupan while serving right next to her on the frontlines of crime prevention and law enforcement in Thermopolis. The transition between work and play has always been easy, as both Zupan and Wilson noted that Maris responds to commands and functions like a tool while at work.

The next four and a half years were full of trainings, police work, and friendship between Maris and Zupan. A number of other counties and regional police departments also have police dogs, and every month Zupan would organize trainings for the partnering K-9 units. "When you only have one dog in a town like this, and there are officers that are willing to put the hides out, it's easy to get together."

Cooperation between the departments, which include Fremont County Sheriffs Department, Powell Police Department, Big Horn County Sheriffs Department, and Johnson County Sheriffs Department, was fundamental for Maris's growth as well as the growth of other police dogs.

"Those dogs, they love doing what they do. She would get in the patrol car, she would jump up in there and she knew where she was going," Zupan said. "We were pretty much on call 24-hours a day," which would sometimes lead to long patrols and Maris's snoozing and snoring in the back of the cruiser.

"Maris is retired now, and she is living with me. She is enjoying retirement," said Zupan, who owns a number of other dogs. "She gets toys all the time. When she was a working dog she didn't get toys all the time. She's getting spoiled," Zupan said, emotional about the retirement of her partner of four years.

"It's a little different now that I don't have a dog in the car, I look back and I think, 'oh, she's not back there'. And then, in the mornings, I had to move my car so that she didn't know I was leaving. But she has adjusted really well."

Zupan also has to adjust to working without Maris. "It's different not having a dog in the car. It's like a bond with the dog. You have their back and they have your back. It's like a person sitting next to you."

Although Zupan and Maris will no longer be working together, it is obvious that they will be partners for life. And, after years serving on the police force, now eight year-old Maris deserves it.