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Jeannette city manager addresses decision to eliminate K-9 program

Jeannette city manager addresses K-9 program's elimination
Jeannette city manager addresses K-9 program's elimination 02:49

JEANNETTE, Pa. (KDKA) -- City officials are breaking their silence in Jeannette, one week after eliminating its K-9 program.

City Manager Ethan Keedy sat down with KDKA-TV exclusively on Thursday, saying most of the reasoning comes down to cost.

"Unfortunately, it's not just something that the City of Jeanette is facing. I know local municipalities, like Latrobe and Derry have already made the difficult decision to abolish that K-9 program because of budgetary constraints and it was something that the city of Jeannette had to consider when doing a complete analysis of the K-9 program," Keedy said.

Keedy said each year, the K-9 program costs the city $250,000.

"With the expenses of salaries over time, health care, vet bills, boarding, maintenance and fuel, the city's paying almost quarter of a million dollars. A little over $250,000 a year for two officers to be specifically on a K-9 program," Keedy said.

Keedy said after review, the city found the performance of the K-9 unit didn't outweigh the costs.

"Since 2018, the only thing those two officers have been able to achieve is one self-initiated arrest in the city of Jeannette. So, when you take that back and you do an analysis of the program, you have to ask yourself, is that worth the taxpayer is paying a quarter of a million dollars to have one arrest?" Keedy said.

In addition, in a statement by the city last week, officials stated the K-9 unit has only been deployed nine times so far this year.

According to sources close to the K-9 program, they said the reasoning behind that number is due in part to one of the handlers being a field training officer, or a FTO.

Sources told KDKA-TV that the FTO was responsible for training a new police officer for the first four months of the year, eliminating the use of his K-9.

"I mean that could be the case, but we have two officers. One being a field training officer and one not being a field training officer. But if that was the case for the first four months of 2024, then why was this the only one self-initiated rest since 2018?" Keedy said. "You know, you look at that and although they have assisted numerous agencies and departments in assists to arrests, with the issues that we are facing in Jeannette, we would have expected when we did this analysis to see more of a proactive response for them being the lead on investigations or starting investigations that would help try to get this drugs and criminals off the streets. I personally was shocked as well when I learned that there was only one self-initiated arrest."  

Keedy stressed that while the program has been eliminated, those handlers will remain as police officers on the force.

KDKA-TV asked what the city plans to do with the $250,000 that had been used for the program.

"So, we're still spending the vast majority of that because that covered the police officers' salaries, their health care, their pensions and all that. They're still going to be officers but instead of them being just specifically designed or implemented on a K-9 program, they're going to be implemented throughout the city of Jeannette on various investigations," Keedy said.

He said in total, he estimates about $35,000 to $40,000 will be saved from the elimination.

"The goal is to try to implement that somehow throughout the city to ensure that each resident remains safe and feel safe in their homes, utilizing it to the best that we can," Keedy said.

One issue the city is currently facing is what to do with one of the dogs.

"I think it's after two years, the dog is with the handler then for life. It's within that two-year period that the city owns the dog. That is with Officer Phillips. The dog has not been on service for two years."

"So, upon the abolishment of the program, the city prepared all the documents necessary after Sergeant Phillips stated that he wanted to keep the dog. The city prepared the documents in order to sign that dog over to him. We then learned that he was not willing to sign those documents and found that the dog was then taken to a nearby kennel. At that time, I personally went and bought the dog food for the dog and made sure that he was going to be taken care of until we get a more permanent solution moving forward but we definitely looked for a good outcome for this animal moving forward," Keedy said.

According to sources, the handler didn't feel comfortable signing the paperwork to take ownership of the dog before city council met to ratify the program's elimination.

Keedy said the dog was dropped off at a local kennel on Monday.

Last Friday, the handlers turned in their police K-9 vehicles to the city.

KDKA-TV has learned that those vehicles were heavily funded by donations from the community. KDKA-TV asked Keedy how the city plans to use those vehicles moving forward and how will they address the fact that they were paid mostly by the community.

"So, every dollar that was donated for the K-9 program was utilized for the K-9 program and the city is doing a legal review as to what obligations that they have outstanding with those funds. And we should know that shortly," Keedy said.

The City of Jeannette told KDKA-TV that they asked the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office several times for help and assistance in funding the K-9 program over the years.

In 2021, the DA donated $11,000 towards the purchase of one of their dogs.

Keedy said they asked the DA for more funding last September and in October of 2023 but got no response.

"I believe it was October of 2022 when there was discussion of bringing on the second K-9 officer and the second dog. We knew that there was going to be a lot of added expense because of that and the additional overtime having to buy a new police vehicle," Keedy said. "We had reached out to the DA's office and sent them a letter, former Chief Johnson sent them a letter, followed up with them personally and we have not heard back from them to get any kind of support or funding for this program."

Keedy went on to say his assistants reached out to the DA's office 3 to 4 months ago, knowing there were budgetary constraints.

KDKA-TV reached out to the district attorney's office, who sent this statement:

"The District Attorney has consistently supported K9 officers across the county. As of this year, the DA's Office has not been approached to financially save this program, but she certainly does support K9 programs and the drug interdiction work that they do.

The DA is honored to support our law enforcement and the resources they need to become the most well-trained and elite police agencies in the Commonwealth."

KDKA-TV asked Keedy if there was any chance of reinstating the K-9 program in the future. He said they're reviewing all options.

"The city's doing the evaluation as to whether or not the program is beneficial for the community. Can it be cost effective and kind of meet the budgetary concerns that we have? We're still doing that ongoing investigation and analysis," Keedy said.

In the meantime, this week a petition was created calling for the mayor's resignation, due to "lack of transparency."

Keedy had no comment about the petition. The mayor was out of the office during the interview with KDKA.

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