By Martha Jacob –

Ripley Police Officer Corey S. Herren spoke briefly to members of the Ripley Village Council May 24, informing them that he was donating the services of an 8-month-old K-9 Unit which will be ready for service by mid July.
“I have been in meetings with the chief and the mayor talking about, what started out with helping a kennel that trains police dogs,” Officer Herren said. “By assisting them, I took a dog into my house to help them out. I worked with him on the training, I’ve learned a lot from those guys and I’ve seen something in this dog that I hadn’t seen in a lot of years and I’ve been a dog handler for a long time.”
Officer Herren said he’s always trained dogs. Not necessarily in the police line but for over 25 years. He bought the Belgian Malinois from St. Michael’s Shepherds Dog Breeders in Loveland.
“I purchased the dog on my own, after seeing what he was capable of,” Herren said. “At 4 months old, he was already doing things that one year old dogs were doing. He is an amazing dog; we’ve been training together now for about four months and I just want to inform council that I am going to donate this dog, Bragi’s services to the Village, at no cost to the village.
“I paid for the dog, I’m paying for the training, and I’m doing it all, on my own time.
“Obviously, we’ll need a special K-9 vehicle for the village, and I know that our department doesn’t have a lot of money, but we currently need another car. This was unexpected, but I came across a car that’s very inexpensive. One of the handler’s I work with is a contract car for Amelia. He is does his own contract with the Amelia Police. He owns his own cars and he just bought a new Tahoe, and he was going to put this old car on the market for about $9,000, but he offered to sell the Dodge Magnum to our department for $3,000.
“The car has a fairly new motor, new transmission, new front-end, new brakes and he said the car should last us 4 or 5 years. Best part is, it is completely K-9 ready. I got the stickers showing it’s a K-9 vehicle donated by Black Designs and the K-9 Memorial donated a bullet proof vest for the dog.”
Officer Herren said he has already talked to several businesses in the village that are ready to make donations towards the new K-9 officer. He said the village has needed a K9 Unit for a long time. In July Bragi will be tested and be narcotic ready at that time. Officer Herren said he would like to schedule a time to bring the dog into council for a demonstration.