Arizona officer suspended after death of police dog left in hot car

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona police officer has been suspended without pay for 20 hours after his police dog died from a heat stroke inside the officer’s car.

Maricopa Police Officer Craig Curry left his K-9 named Ike inside his patrol vehicle with the engine running while he went into police headquarters for a meeting in June 2020, said a report from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

After over an hour and a half, Curry went back to his vehicle and realized it had turned off. Ike was in a kennel in the back of the car panting heavily.

The high temperature that day was about 108 degrees.

Maricopa police policy states that officers should monitor their police dogs at least once every 30 minutes.

Ike was euthanized the following day.

An investigation found that Curry possessed a device called a K-9 heat alarm that would detect and alert him if the car became unreasonably hot for a police dog, but he had left the device in the car when he left for his meeting.

Curry said he didn’t have the pager on him because he was trying out a new body camera that took up space on his vest.