By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
After nine years as a police dog with the Pierce County Sheriff Department, Kramer is hanging up its collar.
The male German shepherd was retired in October by the department, which praised his service while also announcing the promotion of his partner and handler, Winthrop Sargent, from deputy to sergeant.
Sargent said he’ll miss working with Kramer “tremendously.”
“I wanted to be a K9 deputy because it represents what I see as the best part of police work. You go to the calls that have the worst bad guys, that have run off and tried to get away,” Sargent said.
Sargent, whose new duties are as a patrol supervisor, noted the job of K9 units is to track down and find criminals who are trying to escape arrest, and “there is nothing more satisfying that finding a serious bad guy that thought he could avoid capture by hiding, only to be found by our dog."
Sargent recalled a case in which armed-robbery suspects crashed a car while fleeing police, got out and started running. Kramer was brought to the crash scene and quickly found two of the suspects. A third surrendered after hearing the commotion of Kramer cornering the other two.
Kramer, a purebred who came from a Parkland dog breeder, turned 9 years old on Aug. 1. Officials said he’ll spend the rest of his years living with his family.
Kramer is the second K9 dog retired by the Sheriff Department in the past two years. Diego, a black Labrador, was taken off duty last year after developing a terminal illness.
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