LIBERTY — Just like students in the Liberty Local School District, Leo the K-9 officer has been preparing for the school year all summer and is now ready for the job.

“Our K-9 is a tool kit to community policing. When it comes to police K-9 dogs, it is important for the department to connect with the community,” said interim police Chief Toby Meloro. “I believe it’s important to let school children understand that the K-9 is another officer there to protect them and make sure the schools are safe. The Liberty K-9 will be very active in the lower grades teaching children that the K-9 is a tool and not a pet, and in the high school to ensure that no illegal activities are within our school environment, ensuring the safety of Liberty students.”

Leo is a 17-month-old Dutch Shepherd, named after slain Girard police officer Justin Leo. He will work part-time in the Liberty School District to assist the school resource officers in tasks such as locker checks and building searches to look for drugs or to track a lost or missing person.

“If something’s going on in the school, drug related or anything like that, they would use us to come in and assist them in locating any narcotics or anything like that they may be in a school. It’s an extra tool for the SROs. Then once people figure out that we have that, they’re less likely to bring that into our community,” said officer David Rankin, Leo’s handler. “He can do his job without me. I can send him into a room and he can do his job. He needs me to feed him and I have to drive him around to wherever he needs to go, but right now, we’re just figuring each other out. No team ever clicks overnight. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.”

Leo has been training and bonding with Rankin since the first week of July. Together, they work on maintenance training on narcotics and tracking, building searches and criminal apprehension.

In addition to his officer duties, Leo is preparing to be inside the school buildings. He is doing locker searches and getting comfortable in the school environment.

“Carpet, tile, this stuff is all weird for him. It’s all a strange environment for him. The steps are a big thing and the big open floor plans are strange for him. We’ve been in the schools a couple of times, just doing some small training to get him acclimated to the schools,” Rankin said.

Rankin will be handling Leo while he is in the school buildings and knows that both the children and Leo will be excited.

“He is not a pet, he’s not like a family dog, he’s a working dog. I would stress that you don’t ever go up and pet somebody’s dog without letting the person on the other end of the leash know what you’re doing. These are very good dogs, very social dogs, but they are working dogs,” Rankin said. “It’s very stimulating for a dog to see maybe 30 or 40, or even 50, kids. He’s never seen that. He’s seen a whole bunch of adults handlers and police officers or we’re doing something in a controlled environment. Kids are different. I have no doubt of his abilities as long as we work together with the schools.”

Leo already has assisted with a few gun and drug-related arrests within the township and both Rankin and Meloro said they feel he will do a great job when school starts today.

“He still plays and goes on walks but he knows when it’s time for work. He does everything a normal dog does and when it comes to work, he does some amazing things,” Rankin said.

bshiller@tribtoday.com