Throwback Thursday - Lakelands First K9 team! For many years we have had the privilege of celebrating our award winning K9 team and today we want to honor the man who started it all.... RON BOWLING SR. Bowling dubbed Polk Countys father of K-9 training pushed to bring four-legged parters to law enforcement. Sarge was the first K-9 officer to serve in the LakelandPD . Sarge joined the force in 1980 and won several awards in national and regional K-9 competitions before his retirement from the force in 1985. Sadly, Sarge died in 1990 at the age of 12. Ron is now retired but still plays an active roll in developing the next generation of K9s. For Rons years of dedication and service, the Lakeland Police Department renamed their K9 training facility the Sgt. Ron Bowling Lakeland Police K-9 Traning Facility on March 1, 2013. And, his K9 legacy lives on as his son Cory is currently a member of Lakelands K9 team. THANK YOU RON AND SARGE for your dedicated service to the citizens of Lakeland!
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 09:16:58 +0000