City council hosts Mack adoption ceremony

 

NEBRASKA CITY -  Nebraska City Police Sgt. Chris Richardson officially adopted the K9 Mack during a retirement ceremony Monday at a city council meeting that concludes his career as a police dog, Iron Dog calendar feature and public ambassador.

Richardson: “Mack is probably the most famous officer we had on the department. Everybody knows Mack. We would go somewhere and they wouldn’t call me by my name , it’s always there’s Mack. A lot of support from the community.”

Mack has made over 80 deployments a year, once encouraging a suspect held up in an abandoned building to surrender to police. Richardson said the Slovakian-born Mack has had plenty of opportunity to use his specialty of narcotics detection.

 

Richardson: “Very successful. He’s a … You know we’ve pulled a lot of narcotics off the streets. Like I said in there, there’s been cases of state prosecution, we’ve got cases that have gone to a federal level on federal prosecutions.”

Richardson, whose law enforcement career is enhanced by his role as a paramedic and duty with the U.S. Army reserve, added K9 duties after a resignation on the police force. He said handling a dog surprised him as one of the best experiences of his career.

Sgt. Richardson has already begun work with the K9 Alex, who is named in honor Iraq War veteran Cpl. Matthew Alexander, who died in action in 2007.