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player ready...Police officers in Niles are wearing black bands of mourning on their badges this month for a member of their department known simply as Noah.
Noah prowled the streets helping to sniff out crime and, at other times was an Officer Friendly, showing off his crime-fighting talents to students.
A yellow Labrador retriever, 10-year-old Noah had been a member of the Niles Police Department’s canine unit for eight and a half years before he died earlier this month, after being diagnosed with cancer. Noah was one of two police dogs in Niles that helped find narcotics, catch criminals and track missing persons.
“The dog was well loved,” said Sgt. Thomas Davis, the department’s public information officer. “He was like a member of the Police Department.”
Noah is being mourned with flags at half staff and purple and black bunting hanging outside the entrance to the station.
“We have always treated our canines like officers,” Police Chief Dean Strzelecki said.”I know it’s an animal. I know they haven’t been sworn in, and yes, the dog wasn’t killed in the line of duty. But in some cases, these dogs save the handlers–the officers’ lives. They are that cop’s partner.”
A plaque honoring Noah will be hung in the lobby of the police station near plaques honoring an officer who died in the line of duty last year and four others who were employed as officers at the time of their deaths, Strzelecki said.