Kids and K-9. Police officers and a furry friend paid a visit to talk about safety

On Take Our Kids to Work Day, police officers visited kids at the Princeton Packet to talk about safety and meet a K-9 officer.

By: Steven Mutek and Alexandra Rozakis

Princeton Borough police officer Jonathan Bucchere talks to kids about staying safe.

Staff photos by Frank Wojciechowski

Trooper Louis Bucchere gets some help cleaning K-9 Chase’s teeth, and below right, he introduces kids to the police dog.

   First, a Princeton Borough officer talked to
kids about laws and safety. He asked what laws are for and the kids responded
that they keep you healthy and safe. Some of the things that we need to keep us
safe are seatbelts, air bags and safety helmets. They learned you should wear
your seatbelt, always wear your helmet, and never do drugs. The police officer
also teaches D.A.R.E., which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. He teaches
kids not to do drugs and kids in D.A.R.E learn what a police officer does.

   They also talked about "stranger danger." A stranger is anyone
that you don’t know and have never met before. The police officer said if a stranger
scares you, you should yell "Fire!" and run away.

   Then kids got to go outside and meet K-9 officer Chase, a German
shepherd. The dog had very big feet. Police dogs sniff out drugs, evidence, and
sometimes people, the kids learned. K-9 Chase sniffs out bombs. Trooper Bucchere
showed how his police dog followed commands, got ready in the morning, and finds
things with his sense of smell.

   They learned how to brush the dog’s teeth, brush his fur, give
him a drink and put on his "clothes," a badge.

   "We met the police officer’s dog and he looked very vicious,"
said Alexandra.

   Finally, all the kids got to line up and pet the dog before
they said goodbye to the police officers.

   "We learned a lot from him coming," said Alexandra.

       "We got to pet the dog and it was really
fun," said Steven.