ECPD K9 Unit

The ECPD operates two K9 Teams; Officer Cooper & K9 Roman and Officer Perales & K9 Bosco. Both are what are called "Dual Purpose" Police Service Dogs.

The K-9 Unit operates within the Field Operations Division to provide important services to the entire department and to other law enforcement agencies. K9's primarily used to assist in searching for criminals. He aides in locating and apprehending individuals fleeing or hiding from the police. The 'Dual Purpose' he is trained for is to locate controlled substances including marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.

Both dogs work with their human partners and go home with them at the end of every shift. Continuous training is mandatory for the K-9 Unit. Our K9 Unit trains with neighboring law enforcement agencies several times each month.

Our K9 Unit has been in operation since 2010 when the Police Employee Association conducted fund raisers to begin the program. The first El Cerrito Police Dog was named King. He was purchased with public donations from our generous community. Unfortunately King died of natural causes. Again using donations, the Police Employee Association was able to purchase a replacement.  
 
The first K9 was named King in honor of the late Bruce King. Bruce King was a long time employee of the City of El Cerrito and a true dog lover. For the same reason, the one dog park in El Cerrito is the Bruce King Memorial Dog Park located at 1600 Lexington Avenue.

You can view photos of our K9 teams on our Twitter account. Search @elcerritopd