New Gravette police officers commissioned

GRAVETTE -- Joshua Greer and Jeremy Rhodes were sworn in as members of the Gravette Police Department's reserve component last Thursday evening by circuit judge Tommy Smith. The two officers underwent an extensive interview, selection and training process and are now ready to be active members of the Gravette PD's reserve or auxiliary component.

The reserve officers are volunteers who donate their time to be trained and ride along with regular officers in order to supplement manpower. Greer and Rhodes have already spent much time accompanying officers to make sure they wanted to take this step. They then attended and graduated from the Washington County Sheriff's Office part-time academy after six weeks of training, five days a week, for a total of 120 hours.

Now that they are commissioned officers, Greer and Rhodes will work their way through an internal training program in which they will progressively be allowed more responsibility, working special events and eventually being approved to be promoted to paid part-time positions with the department.

A third new member of the department, Ikks Du Monts Lerroux, is the Gravette PD's canine officer. "Ikks" is a 2 1/2 year old Belgian Malinois imported from France by Von Klein Stein Working Dog Kennels in North Little Rock. A former performance dog, he was trained in narcotics detection, tracking, article search and personal protection at Von Klein Stein. He was selected with the help of Deputy Chris Kelly and other members of the Benton County Sheriff's Office K9 team and comes with a one-year health and lifetime behavioral training guarantee.

When the Gravette city council made the decision to allow the city to purchase a canine, a $5,000 grant for fitting the canine unit vehicle was received from the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development Commission and $11,000 in private donations was acquired in about a month. Donors include Built-well Construction, Insul-Bead, Tuff Coat, Jacob Smith, Hiwasse Store, Back Country Taxidermy, Ken and Paulette Austin, John Cowan Drywall, Patricia Hurley, JD's Dirtwork, Teasley Drug, R&R Packaging, Bank of Gravett, Champion Drywall, John and Janice Lykins, Kim Hendren, the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District and the Walton Family Foundation.

According to Andy Bower, Gravette police chief, "We did a lot of research because of events that happened in the past. Von Klein Stein was the name we heard over and over from departments of all sizes with successful canine programs. We met with the owner and head trainer and explained the history of our past program. We reviewed several dogs. In the end, all agreed that Ikks was by far the most calm, level-headed and mature dog we had seen. He can be all business or all play but he always had a calm, watchful demeanor that set him apart from the rest."

Ikks will be partnered with officer Bryan Smith. Officer Smith and Ikks have just completed their handler's course at Von Klein Stein Kennels and are expected to be on duty at midweek when the final fitting is done on their new patrol vehicle.