Handler Senior Police Officer Newman
K9 Bear will be six years old in 2016; he is a dual-purpose German Shepherd Police Service dog trained in patrol tactics and narcotics detection. K9 Bear came to the Houston Police Department in 2013 with only basic police service dog skills, where upon him and his handler, Senior Police Officer Eric Newman, completed 480 hours of training to be certified by the City of Houston. K9 Bear is also certified under the standards of National Narcotics Detection Dog Association (NNDDA) in the detection of five different narcotic odors.
In his short police career thus far K9 Bear has responded to an average of 1,500 calls for service each year throughout the Houston area. K9 Bear has been deployed more than 200 times conducting over 90 building searches and 65 tracks, each in an attempt to locate suspects. K9 Bear is credited with arresting more than 100 bad guys each year for various violations. As a narcotics dog, K9 Bear has found and removed an estimated value of more than $210,000 worth of narcotics from Houston streets, and seized over $276,000 of U.S. currency.
In 2014 Officer Newman and K9 Bear were responding to an assist the officer call, where a suspect had shot at officers. K9 Bear successfully tracked and located the suspect hiding in tall grass waiting in ambush for responding officers. As a result of this successful capture, K9 Bear surely saved the lives of several officers, and thwarted imminent danger to first responders and innocent civilians.
K9 Bear is by far the largest police service dog working in the HPD Canine Detail; he weighs in at 106 pounds and stands roughly five feet tall on his hind legs. At work K9 Bear has quite the reputation for being all business, and is always ready for the next call. But when K9 Bear is not on duty he lives at home with his handler and family and loves mom’s homemade cookie dog treats. In his off time, K9 Bear loves to go to the park, and his favorite activity is to play endless hours of fetch-the-tennis-ball.