Bosma and Thunder unleashed on crime

by Logan Gruber

operations@thenewsleaders.com

Incoming Sauk Rapids police K9 Thunder was a ball of energy in the police garage last week.

“He gets excited when he sees my uniform,” Officer Matt Bosma said in a Newsleader interview.

Thunder is a German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois cross. He was purchased through Performance Kennels in Buffalo, Minn., which will also handle the training of Thunder and Bosma.

Bosma has been with the Sauk Rapids Police Department  for nearly 11  years and spent his entire time as the decoy for the previous police K9, Storm.

“I was the young guy and they had a bite suit, so they said ‘put this on and let’s see what happens,'” Bosma said.

He was Sgt. Brent Bukowski’s ‘decoy’ for the whole 10 years Storm was with the department. The decoy wears the bite suit or a sleeve and gets bit by the dog, helping train it.

“Every time Storm saw me he thought it was time to play. I was his chew-toy,” Bosma said.

When it came time to retire Storm, Bukowski told Bosma he could take over the program if he wanted to, and he applied. Bukowski did offer to handle Thunder if no one else wanted to.

Sgt. Bukowski is now the head of the K9 unit, while Bosma is Thunder’s handler. The handler is the only person who ever gives orders to a K9. A decoy for Thunder is yet to be announced but may end up being officer Alex Wegner. Wegner was hired recently and is still in training with Bosma, so he encounters Thunder all the time. Also, Bosma said, the decoy is usually a younger person as they can take more punishment.

Bosma’s shift is now every Thursday and Friday night and every other weekend night. These shifts have the highest call volume and would be the most likely to need a K9 on hand.

“We are available to be called out at any time though,” Bosma added. “I take the K9 unit vehicle home so I can quickly get to where we need to be, even if we aren’t on duty.”

Storm was part of the Benton-Stearns SWAT team, but Thunder won’t be. The St. Cloud police department has two K9s they will use for SWAT purposes. Sgt. Bukowski remains part of the SWAT team.

Home

Bosma is originally from Hutchinson. He attended St. Cloud State University where he had planned to get a degree in communications before a fateful encounter with a Sauk Rapids police officer.

“About halfway through my degree I took a class called Police Patrol Issues, given by Capt. Gapinski, who was with the Sauk Rapids police department (at the time),” Bosma said. “His class motivated me to become a police officer.”

He changed his major, got his degree and then worked in Elk River at the Sherburne County Jail for three years before he was finally hired nearly 11 years ago at this department.

Bosma has a wife and children. The kids are used to Thunder; they have been around K9s since they were born.

Thunder has been with Bosma for more than one month now, and spends most of his time at home outside, in the kennel. The city provided a kennel and insulated dog house at Bosma’s home, so Thunder is outside except when it’s really cold.

Work

“As long as we’re not working with Thunder, the community can approach him,” Bosma said. “We want people to be comfortable around him.”

Most of the time for right now, Thunder rides around in the special canine unit Chevy Tahoe. The majority of the back seat is a kennel, with a small passenger seat on the driver’s side. Thunder has plenty of space to turn around and lay down. He even has a sliding door to stick his head through into the front seat. He can see out of his side window but cannot see into the backseat passenger space.

“The other day Officer Wegner and I were searching for a missing kid,” Bosma said. “We found him and he had his dog with him. We put them in the passenger area in the back, and we thought it might be a problem but it was fine with Thunder in there . . . I’ve met K9 handlers who have dogs who rock the whole squad car anytime the lights come on or radio goes off, but so far he has been quiet. Hopefully through training that will stay.”

The vehicle also has a temperature monitor on it. The display will alert the officer if the car is too hot or too cold for Thunder. And if Bosma is outside the car while Thunder is inside, the system will actually signal a pager on Bosma’s body to tell him if something is wrong with the vehicle.

“It’s most important in the summer time, because if the car overheats the air conditioner will be the first thing the car computer turns off,” Bosma added.

As far as Thunder’s personal needs go, Bosma said he feeds Thunder before and after the 10-hour shift. Thunder does have access to water the entire time in the vehicle’s kennel, and Bosma takes him out of the kennel nearly every hour so Thunder doesn’t have to worry about conserving water or making a mess in the kennel.

Training

As a German Shepherd/Belgian Malinoise mix, Thunder has a higher energy level and drive for tracking than a pure German Shepherd would.

“To the K9, training and work are just a game,” Bosma said. “It’s just a way to get a reward or play with a toy, whether it’s finding narcotics or apprehending a suspect. Police dogs used to be angrier. They used to take dogs from pounds who were just naturally aggressive or mean, and they would teach them everything else. Policing is getting away from that . . . We just want a dog who is doing a job. He is happy to meet people, happy to get petted, and then he can turn around and do a job and then go back to being a social dog. We want the community to be comfortable.”

Storm and Thunder are what are known as dual-purpose dogs. They learn both narcotics as well as apprehension. The K9s have to be certified in both subjects annually. Thunder will be trained in apprehension and obedience in February and should be certified by March. Training for narcotics takes about eight to 10 weeks starting in April, and if everything goes well he should be fully certified by sometime around June.

Thunder will officially be on the job after being certified in obedience and apprehension at the end of February, but until then will continue to just observe.