The following is from the Walnut Creek Police Department:
Walnut Creek Police Department’s K9 Timber has received a bullet and stab protective vest thanks to a charitable donation from non-profit organization Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. K9 Timber’s vest was embroidered with the sentiment “In memory of K9 Graffit, Jefferson County, CO EOW 2/13/23”.
Vested Interest in K9s, Inc., established in 2009, is a charity whose mission is to provide bullet and stab protective vests and other assistance to dogs of law enforcement and related agencies throughout the United States. This potentially lifesaving body armor for four-legged K9 officers is U.S. made, custom fitted, and NIJ certified. Since its inception, Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. has provided over 5,514 vests to K9s in all 50 states at a value of $6.9 million, made possible by both private and corporate donations.
The program is open to U.S. dogs that are at least 20 months old and actively employed and certified with law enforcement or related agencies. K9s with expired vests are also eligible to participate. There are an estimated 30,000 law enforcement K9s throughout the United States.
Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. accepts tax-deductible contributions in any amount, while a single donation of $985 will sponsor one vest. Each vest has a value of $1800.00, weighs an average of 4-5 lb., and comes with a five-year warranty. For more information, or to learn about volunteer opportunities, please call 508-824-6978. Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. provides information, lists events, and accepts donations at www.vik9s.org, or you may mail your contribution to P.O. Box 9, East Taunton, MA 02718.
10 comments
https://youtu.be/3jpobguxLfE
Great job K-9 Officer Timber keeping your Community safe. All K-9 Officers should have these.
How adorable! Technically the K9 is the officer’s partner so YES they should have one too. #nobrainer
Stay safe, Timber!
Good work by this organization. Makes me wonder if there are layers out there who would sue because a crook couldn’t shoot or stab a police dog that was trying to take him/her down.
Lookin’ good, Officer 😊 🐶
THANK YOU to Vested Interest for K-9s
Little known fact, body armor is completely legal in California. Unless you’re a convicted felon. That makes me smile, somebody went out of their way to put that in. 🇺🇸😁
Bravo!! Look at that sweet boy pose for the camera in his new outfit. 🙂
Let’s say a vest reduces the risk of mortality or debilitating injuries by 50%. At $1,800 per vest, the implied cost per dog protected in a shooting incident is $3,600. I’d be surprised if more than 1 in 100 police dogs actually get shot. Assuming there’s one incident per 100 dogs, the cost per dog saved is $36,000.
Taxpayers in California pay $15-$20k per trained police dog, so the per-dog cost of each vest is ~2x more than the cost to replace a dog that gets shot.
Not a good use of money!
Based number cruncher.
Why do you think it’s not a good use of money? Nothing you wrote supports that conclusion.
But since you did decide to write a bunch of stuff…
– The cost of a vest is written in the article up there, in normal numbers, you can see it too if you look. It is $985. You seem to have made up your own cost of $1,800 to do your math with?
– If the cost of a new trained police dog is $15–20k, and your “per-dog cost” of each vest is ~2x that, then each vest must cost ~$30–40k. But that can’t be right, because we just determined each vest costs $985. (“Per-dog” cost… are you implying there’s another way to look at it? Perhaps vest cost per half-dog or quarter-dog?)
– A “charity” means a group to which people or organizations voluntarily give money to help others. So nothing to do with these vests or their cost has anything to do with CA taxpayers. They’re free as far as the taxpayer is concerned.
Even making up random numbers for the math you still didn’t get a result that supported your conclusion, which is odd. But I hope you keep working at math it can be fun when you get the hang of it.
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