McKay Lauritzen has worked for the Gilbert Police Department for nearly a decade, building the expected friendships with colleagues in that time. But in the past few weeks, a new partner has usurped those relationships.
“Yeah, when I walk in, nobody cares about me anymore,” Lauritzen said. “That's the biggest thing. People that used to give me a big hug, they just go straight to Finley, and then I'm like, ‘Hey, you remember me? I was your friend for 10 years before you met Finley. '
“I don't blame them, though. I mean, he's a lot cooler than I am.”
Dogs usually are.
Yes, Lauritzen’s partner, Finley, is a dog — specifically a 3-year-old golden doodle who is the Gilbert Police Department’s new therapy dog. Lauritzen is a peer support and wellness coordinator for the department in addition to working as a SWAT team negotiator.
While Finley sometimes might meet the public at events, his duty is to the department’s officers. He is there for stress relief for the men and women who work in an especially stressful field.
The duo bounce among the department’s facilities. Lauritzen aids employees, too, talking to them about whatever they are going through, personal or job-related.
“We just want to try and engage with our employees and provide them whatever help we can to build their resilience and have a happy and healthy workforce,” he said.
Finley also can go out in the field, like when Lauritzen is called upon be a negotiator when the SWAT team is deployed. Finley waits in the wings at those times.
“I'm not taking him into a dynamic situation,” he said. “That's not his purpose. He wouldn't go up there. But after everything's cooled down and over, especially if we've had something where we've had an officer-involved shooting or something traumatic that our employees have had to go through, absolutely. He'll come out as a support for them.”
So will Lauritzen, who coordinates resources for officers after critical incidents so they are taken care of.
Lauritzen and Finley actually are the second handler/therapy dog pairing the department has had. Officer Ed Morales originally got the therapy dog program in place in 2019.
Studies show facility therapy dogs are highly beneficial, Lauritzen said, and a department survey showed overwhelming desire from the force to have one.
Morales worked with a German shepherd mix, Cora, until they retired together last year.
When that happened, the department approached Lauritzen about taking over the role, and he happily accepted.
Finley came from the Fetch Foundation, a local nonprofit that evaluates rescue dogs as facility therapy dogs or as service dogs to people with a disability. It then trains them and places them with any number of agencies with which it works. Finley still does additional training with Lauritzen.
Lauritzen, 37, entered the police academy at age 20 and worked out of state and in Scottsdale before coming to Gilbert. Finley has dramatically changed his working day. Finley’s care is a full-time job, he said.
“I've had to rewire my brain,” he said. “Everything I do now, I think I have to take a dog into consideration from where I park to make sure that I can find that strip of shade all the way to the door so that he's not burning his paws to making sure that he's getting out for his restroom breaks when he needs them, to monitoring his behavior so that I know when he's exhausted and when he's done. I need to respect that as well.”
Finley’s day starts when Lauritzen’s day does.
“Finley wakes up whenever I wake up,” Lauritzen said. “And when I get up and go to work, the vest comes out, we throw the vest on him, and that's when he knows it's time to go to work. And he suits up, jumps in the car with me, and I bring him into work.”
One group that really loves Finley is the communications staff in dispatch as they are tethered to the office, taking high-stress 911 calls. Officers in the field can break away to a quiet spot, Lauritzen said, but it is much harder for the communications staff.
Regardless, he is popular with everyone in the department.
“Dogs just do things that we cannot,” Lauritzen said. “Some of it's, we know what dogs make us feel like when they come into a room, especially a big fluffy teddy bear like him. They can just reduce that stress in the room. ... They're just there for you unconditionally.”
He also may retire when Lauritzen does, which could be as soon as three and a half to four years.
“We'll see what I'm doing and where I'm at then if I keep working with him or if I can coax the department and they'll let him retire with me,” Lauritzen said.
Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on Twitter. We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here