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Mulberry Police Tweak Rules For Handlers After K9's Death

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Sam Diesel, the 2 1/2-year-old male German shepherd, and the dog’s handler, Officer Sara Movahed

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By VALERIE KALFRIN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 22, 2008

Updated: 07/22/2008 06:30 pm

The death of a police dog in a department car, blamed on a faulty air conditioner, points to the risks these animals face in helping fulfill their handlers' duties, dog handlers say.

It also brought to light policies in need of change at the small Mulberry Police Department in Polk County. Now, officers who work with dogs must check on the animals every 30 minutes, and special heat alarms must be installed in cars carrying dogs, Chief Larry Cavallaro said.

Sam Diesel, a 2 1/2-year-old male German shepherd, had been left alone in a Mulberry police car with the engine running for more than three hours Monday when the air conditioner failed, Cavallaro said.

"Handlers sometimes depend too much on their equipment, and it's not a good situation to get in to," he said. "I can tell you we've learned a very, very hard lesson."

The dog's handler, Officer Sara Movahedi, arrived at headquarters about 12:20 p.m. after working on the street. She did paperwork and other duties and checked again on the dog about 3:50 p.m. She found him dead, with the air conditioner blowing hot air.

The temperature in Mulberry on Monday afternoon reached the low to mid-90s.

A police dog's death under such circumstances is not considered abuse or neglect under criminal law, said Marti Ryan, a spokeswoman for Hillsborough County Animal Services.

"When someone goes to Publix and leaves a dog in the car with the windows down, that's different from a law-enforcement officer who puts their partner in what they think is … a controlled environment," Ryan said.

Handlers commonly leave police dogs in a running vehicle, said Terry Anderson, president of the National Police Canine Association. Anderson is a sergeant with the Pasadena (Texas) Police Department and has a four-legged partner, a Belgian malinois named Euro.

Three hours is "not normal," Anderson said, but it is not unusual, either.

"Sometimes I'm the only sergeant on duty, and I've left him in the truck for two or three hours at a time," Anderson said. "I have a kennel facility in my office -- if I know I'm going to be in the office for a long period."

Movahedi had confidence in the air-conditioning system, Cavallaro said. The department had assigned her a 2004 Ford Crown Victoria within the past month because it is newer than a truck she had been using and because its air-conditioning unit had been replaced.

The agency also was in the process of obtaining a heat alarm for the vehicle, which triggers a page or other alert once the temperature in the car reaches a certain level, Cavallaro said.

Sam Diesel was one of three police dogs at Cavallaro's department. The animal was purchased in October with about $12,625 in donations from Wal-Mart employees in Polk and Hillsborough counties. The "Sam" comes from Sam Walton, founder of the retail giant.

Movahedi, a two-year veteran, previously had teamed with Cookie, a drug-detecting Labrador, Cavallaro said.

The officer is devastated over Sam Diesel's death, said colleagues including Tampa police canine Officer Jason Tkach, who trained with Movahedi and Sam Diesel.

"She would never do anything purposely to hurt that dog," Tkach said. "He was a large shepherd, but in her arms, he was a big baby."

The small Mulberry Police Department does not have an indoor kennel. The agency has about 20 sworn officers serving a community of about 3,500 on the southern edge of Lakeland.

The Tampa Police Department has a kennel for a bloodhound used to track missing children. The agency's other dogs, trained for several purposes, remain with their handlers throughout the day.

Tkach said he parks in the shade, rolls down the window halfway and leaves the air conditioner on full-blast whenever he leaves his partner, a German shepherd named Bosco.

His vehicle has a heat-sensor system that honks the horn, drops the windows and runs a fan when the inside temperature reaches a certain level. The system runs off the vehicle's battery.

About a month ago, however, the backup failed after a faulty alternator drained the battery, Tkach said. The officer discovered the failure after leaving the car for 15 to 30 minutes. The dog wasn't in distress.

"If you don't experience a mechanical failure in your vehicle, that's not in the back of your mind," Tkach said.

On meal breaks, Tkach said, passers-by often ask whether he can bring his dog indoors. This isn't practical because of some people's fear of dogs and the animal's intense training, he said. Once they leave the car, he explained, they're ready to work.

"You have to have a safe area of containment."

News Channel 8 reporter Josh Thomas contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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