K9 Luke – Kendall County, Illinois

Retired Kendall County Police Dog Dies

It’s with the heaviest of hearts we report the recent passing of one of our retired K9 Deputies, Luke. K9 Luke started his career with the Sheriff’s Office on December 17th, 2010 with his handler Deputy DeCamp. Luke retired from the Sheriff’s Office last July after 9 years of dedicated service to the Sheriff’s Office and citizens of Kendall County. Upon retirement, Luke was adopted by Deputy DeCamp and his family to live out his days and enjoy retired life. K9 Luke was a dual purpose German shepherd from Poland. Luke specialized in narcotics detection for both vehicular and residential searches, and patrol work such as tracking, handler protection, and evidence searches. Rest easy, Luke. We will take it from here.

Submitted By Jim Cortina

James A. Cortina has been involved with police dogs since 1972 and currently on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. Jim has been appointed as Treasurer since its inception in 1991. Jim is one of the charter members of the C.P.W.D.A. organization. Since 1975 he has been a certified professional dog trainer and received his Master Trainer Certification in 1985. During his career he has provided armed K-9 strike crowd control for security agencies in Connecticut and out of state security companies. In conjunction with other members of the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. Board of Directors, he helped to draft Connecticut Statute 53-247(e) "Intentional Injury or Killing of Police K-9" which was passed by the Senate in 1993 and also assisted in implementing the prestigious Daniel Wasson Memorial K-9 Award in 1992. In 1993 he helped coordinate the North American Police Work Dog Association Nationals in New London, Connecticut. He was appointed Training Director for the New London County Work Dog Association from 1985-1987. He performed decoy work for Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. in police K-9 demonstrations, trained several local police department canines, and coordinated training workshops for out-of-state police departments. He participated in the United States Police K-9 Association Trials in Croton on Hudson, New York in 1985 as a decoy. He is an avid photographer and received photography awards in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and currently takes photographs for the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc.