When I heard last week that Reading Police Chief William Heim was going to disband the Reading Police K-9 Unit, I was outraged! For the life of me, it did not make sense.
The problem according to an article in last Friday’s Reading Eagle stated that the police union had gone back on a verbal agreement to allow the chief to select officers for the unit based on certain qualification, such as not having been disciplined for excessive use of force.
The union, according to the same article, claims “there is no agreement and wants the chief to assign officer to the unit based on seniority”.
I know many citizens of Reading are outraged that the K-9 Unit may be disbanded. I have known about the K-9 Unit before its inception when I received an email looking for German Shephard dogs to train to be a part of this wonderful and so-needed program.
The people responsible for getting this program restarted after a 4 year hiatus are the Friends of the Reading Police K-9 Unit. The two people who have done such a fantastic job are Keith Claytor and Paulette Williams. These two people have worked vigorously to raise funds and to finally get Mayor McMahon’s backing.