Butler police dog begins night patrols
Village of Butler – Night-time police patrols are no longer as lonesome or dangerous for the village's third-shift officer, Lt. Brian Pergande.
He's got a canine partner now – a police-trained German shepherd called Oden – thanks in large part to a generous contribution from Butler resident Mary Turnbull.
Pergande took Oden on his first patrol Saturday night, May 16. "We encountered an 'open door' the first night," Pergande said.
Pergande regularly checks Butler businesses for open doors on his night beat. If he finds one, he goes in, looks around and, if no one's there, secures the door as he leaves. He notifies the business owner the next day.
This time, though, "Oden went in ahead of me and cleared it out."
If Oden had discovered anyone there, he would have barked if the man fled, or held him with his teeth if he caught him.
That's just one of his jobs. Besides "officer protection and criminal apprehension," Oden can also track criminals or missing children and elderly people and retrieve evidence dropped by suspects that an officer might miss, Pergande explained.
Adding a canine officer to the otherwise single-officer night beat was Pergande's brainchild. Night patrols had become increasingly dangerous as drug busts in the village doubled over the last two years, he said.
He began campaigning for it last fall with a letter to Police Chief Michael Cosgrove. The chief backed him up and took it to the Village Board, which unanimously endorsed the proposal – but without voting any money for it.
Pergande then sent out fundraising letters to every resident and business in the village. He had raised about $5,000 in $100-$500 contributions when Turnbull stepped in and donated the balance.
Oden was already trained, but Pergande was not, so he went to Campbellsport to take the Steinig Tal Police K9 Academy's four-week training course at Fox Valley Technical College's Criminal Justice Division.
There he had to learn a little German, too, because that's the language Oden (named after the chief god in the ancient Norse religion) knows.
"Most police dogs are trained in another language," Pergande explained, "so criminals can't confuse them."
It's also a tradition. "Police dogs were first developed in Germany," he noted. Oden's parents were from Germany, too, he added.
The dog and Pergande's training cost $10,000, and Pergande expects Oden to cost another $25,000-$30,000 over the course of his estimated 10-year life expectancy for housing, food and medical care, plus yearly certification.
Neighboring communities might also benefit from Butler's police dog. Oden will be available for mutual assistance with other communities, Pergande said.
The 32-year-old Pergande has worked in law enforcement for nine years and trained with the West Allis Police Department's canines when he served there as a dispatcher.
Pergande, who still lives in West Allis, has also worked for the Kenosha Police Department (five years) and for the Wisconsin Capitol Police in Madison and at State Fair Park in West Allis, but hopes to spend the rest of his career in Butler.
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