Commander Laurence Francis McDonald

KC: Because he was so scared of the dog?

LM: Oh, yes. You know in the dark you hear all those clicky nails. They ignore the advice to come out. There were many arrests like that that improved the dogs. It was unfortunate that the dog program lasted about three or more years when Chief Proetz then went out under some ill feelings and some ill conduct that he got involved with. Lester McAuliffe took over, which those two never got along, and so he put aside all of Bill Proetz’s ideas, so the dogs went back home with us and lived with us as house pets until it was reorganized again some time later [in 1970].

KC: What year was it originally organized?

LM: In 1958.

KC: So you were there ’58 to ’61?

LM: Yes.

KC: And then?

LM: McAuliffe took over and discontinued the dog program and then it regained again.

We were the second city in the United States to have dogs. Minneapolis heard about our dog program and got caught short and went to, I think it was General Mills, and they purchased two dogs from Germany and had them shipped over there. The dogs didn’t understand English, obviously, so the officers had to learn some German to put them into use. They got bitten by the dogs and their program I don’t believe was as successful as ours and I don’t think it lasted as long as ours.

KC: Were you involved when the dog program, the K-9 unit came back into effect?

LM: No, I was on a different assignment of that time.

KC: What was the name of your dog again?

LM Pal.

KC: How long was Pal a house pet of yours?

LM: He lived to be a ripe old age. I had two dogs at that time, my own German Shepard, he got turned down because he wasn’t aggressive enough, and then I picked up the new dog. Pal lived with me successfully for about fifteen years. He was a nice old dog.

KC: Did Pal miss being able to go to work?

LM: Oh, tremendous, tremendous loss.

KC: Did you ever unofficially take Pal out when you had a difficult situation?

LM: Well, see, what I used to do is, I always have been a walker my whole life and so when I would come off duty to relax, if it was 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, I would go for a walk. He and I would always go for a walk, that would taper him off a little bit that he was not still [working]. Our walks would go for a mile or two sometimes.

I’ll never forget one night I came home and I had three guys on my back porch. What they had done is they had robbed the bar up on Stryker and Stevens called Curly’s Bar, and they had fled the police and unfortunately they were staked out on my back porch, it was an open porch.

KC: Did they know whose back porch?

LM: No, they had no idea whose porch it was, just bad timing, bad decision. I used my dog that time. We chased them into, what was at that time the quarry, which is now the Wilder Foundation, the rest home down there. Where they were caught. That was a big thrill for him. I had a wonderful time with that dog and he got along so well with my neighbors and my family. He was just a highly disciplined, structured dog.

KC: Who were the other officers that started the original canine unit?

LM: Ed Buehlman, and he had a dog by the name of Barron [7], and then Bill Swiger had Champ. We could all tell you stories. Remember the story of the kid on the roof.

The dogs are useful because when you would have those cranky repeat calls, you would search visually as a human and not know what happened. One time I went up on a call with a window peeper, a prowler kind of call, and as I searched the property with my dog, why, of course, the dog was looking up all the time and I couldn’t figure out why he was looking up. And, low and behold, this young teenage boy had crawled the rain gutter of this expensive home and he got up on the roof, second story, and then he would look into the female bedroom because she only had half drapes. I would never have discovered that. I think that’s what happened to the other officers that serviced the call, they never looked up.

One of my things when I teach observation is I always tell people that we never look above our line of sight, but the dog has taught me to look above the line of sight.

Jim Griffin [8] one time sent me up to the Catholic Guild where the single girls that came to town, and they were having trouble with a window peeper. The squads had been there repeatedly with no results. So Jim said we’ve got to do something about that. I went up there one night on the call with the dog and sure enough the guy was hidden in a clump of lilacs that the other officers and myself would have walked by and the denseness of it probably would never have discovered him. But the dog’s sense of smell, the dog’s acute hearing will help you so much it’s unbelievable, and their ability to see better at night. Those are some of the small incidences that we had that proved the dogs were extremely valuable to us. I think they’re being proven every day today.

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[7] Barron came into service in 1959; Edward J. Buehlman was his handler.

[8] James Stafford Griffin (July 6, 1917 – November 23, 2002) was appointed reserve patrolman August 6, 1941; patrolman full-time August 1942; the first Black male to be promoted to sergeant September 16, 1955; and captain March 2, 1970; and deputy chief October 6, 1972; and retired August 31, 1983.

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