The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office’s new K9 team, Deputy Jared Kasinger and K9 Kimbo, are officially on duty.
The duo is the first K9 team the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has had since now-Field Operations Bureau Chief Rick Van Wyck retired his K9 partner, Axel, about three years ago.
While the sheriff’s office has had the resources to get a new K9 for several years, the sheriff’s office decided to “wait until the dust settled a bit” on the police reform laws that went into effect in 2021.
“Our thought was, and the sheriff’s thought was … ‘we’re not going to waste donated money and have to get rid of the dog,’” Van Wyck said.
One of the reform laws passed by the state Legislature in 2021 banned the use of certain police tactics, including the use of police dogs for arresting and apprehending people. Under the new law, K9s could still be used for tracking, search and rescue and narcotics detection.
Several police departments across Washington state, including the Battle Ground Police Department, suspended their K9 programs or limited K9 use after the law went into effect.
Washington lawmakers passed several amendments to the reforms in 2022, including one that clarified when officers could use force, including police dogs, for arrests.
Once the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office decided it was safe for them to get a new K9, Van Wyck said, “then it’s a process of finding your handler, a dog, then four or five months of training after that.”
Kasinger, who has been with the sheriff’s office since 2017, submitted a letter of interest to be a K9 handler and was approved by sheriff’s office leadership in January.
“He just became employee of the year … and he’s a real go-getter out there. He works hard, does some great work out there. So we know what we’re getting with him,” Van Wyke said of Kasinger.
In addition to his outstanding work as a deputy, Kasinger worked for Van Wyck back when Axel was an active K9 and had experience with the work required to handle a K9. Today, Kasinger Kasinger is one of two people other than Van Wyck himself that Van Wyck allows to care for Axel.
“Jared was one of those who showed an interest, did a lot of (questioning) with me and training with me and so he got to learn a lot about the dog and different behaviors of the dog, so it made it an easier fit for him,” Van Wyck said.
Kassinger played a large role in choosing his K9 partner, testing a wide variety of dogs through multiple K9 breeders to find the perfect fit.
He ultimately selected Kimbo, a 2-year-old German shepherd originally from Holland and selected by Gold Coast K9 near Malibu, California, where Kasinger met him.
The selection came “after doing a lot of training down there and testing with him to see if he’s going to fit our needs,” Van Wyck said.
In late January, Kasinger and Kimbo began their 400 hours of training through the Vancouver Police Department’s K9 academy, followed by 200 hours of narcotics detection training.
“We started off with patrol work … just tracking evidence searches, bite work,” Van Wyck said. “And then once that certification was done, we moved on to 200 hours of narcotics detection.”
They were certified for both patrol and narcotics detection as of May 29, according to the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
For narcotics, “Kimbo is certified with meth, heroin and cocaine,” Kasinger said, adding that Kimbo will soon train for detection of fentanyl, using a dog-safe pseudo drug to practice.
Kimbo responded to his first call on June 1 in Winlock, where he successfully alerted to meth inside a vehicle.
The sheriff’s office intends to primarily use Kimbo to apprehend fleeing suspects and to detect narcotics, in addition to weekly visits to the Lewis County Jail, according to Van Wyck.
Kasinger and Kimbo will also go out into the community to present at schools and other events.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office K9 program is fully donation based, with the money coming primarily from community members and local businesses.
“We get some families who have donated five to 10 thousand dollars,” Van Wyck said. “It’s amazing what people do to try and help out. $100 here, $100 there, it all helps out because the dogs are so expensive.”
One of the co-owners of Totally Pawsome in Chehalis, Sarah Coffman, has agreed to be Kimbo’s lifetime sponsor, “so once the dog is retired, she will still provide the dog food. Anything that I need (for Kimbo), she helps me with,” Kasinger said.
When asked if the sheriff’s office has plans to expand its K9 program going forward, Van Wyck said, “You never know, in the next year or two, (if) you find the right fit and the program’s doing well and (Kasinger) goes into overload mode and can’t keep up with all the business … It’s possible, for sure.”
