To Protect and Cuddle: NYPD’s Therapy Dogs on the Job

The New York Police Department’s therapy dogs, "Detectives" Glory, Piper and Jenny. (Dave Paone/The Epoch Times)

The New York Police Department has gone to the dogs.

Perhaps better put, the dogs have gone to the NYPD. For the past two and a half years, the department has employed three handlers, each with a highly trained dog, to attend to officers, their families, victims of crimes—anyone who needs the comfort of a dog in a time of distress.

Cops in urban areas see society at its worst, often daily. Repeatedly viewing crime scenes and interacting with the bottom rung of the populace can take a toll on anyone, and often cops find it difficult to process all that they witness. Some find it just as difficult to admit to anyone they need help in doing so.

That’s what the Health and Wellness Section is for. It was created in August of 2019 and is an outreach for any NYPD employees in crisis.

Suicides

Several years ago, the suicide rate among NYPD officers was alarmingly high, with an average of four per year. That number spiked to 10 in 2019.

“More officers die by suicide than are killed in the line of duty annually around the United States,” Deputy Mark Wachter, commanding officer of the Health and Wellness Section, told The Epoch Times.

“We had to look at the different policies that we had and really we had to start focusing on the wellness of the officer” through new policies and initiatives, as the ones at the time were “not working,” he said.

A task force was assembled, and the Health and Wellness Section was created. The department already had an Employee Assistance Unit, which had been around since the 1970s. In 2019, it became one of the several units under the auspices of the Health and Wellness Section.

The EAU has 400 employees in a peer support program who work in dual roles as cops and counselors and are trained in suicide prevention, resiliency, and depression.

The NYPD has 35,000 smartphones used for crimefighting. The Health and Wellness Section utilizes an app every officer and civilian employee has access to on his phone. The section’s recourses—including counselors, chaplains, and peer support members—are listed in the app, which was created by the NYPD.

“They are literally a fingertip away,” said Wachter. “You can call them, text them, email them 24 hours a day. You’re in crisis? They’re there.”

Wachter estimates his people get 5,500 requests per year, with 40 to 50 per month on “the midnights,” which is the shift that usually sees the most activity.

So why the dogs?

One reason is there’s still a stigma to mental illness, and someone in need may find it difficult or even impossible to ask for help from another human. But if that other human has a calm, inviting dog at his feet, and that dog is trained to accept petting without any adverse reaction, the person in need may view the dog as a stepping stone to the other human.

There are three such humans, each with such a dog, in the EAU. Theresa Mahon, Ron Thomas, and Efrain Hernandez are all detectives, peer counselors, and handlers.

“These dogs kind of act as an icebreaker,” Thomas told The Epoch Times.

Sometimes the handlers show up at “roll call,” which is a briefing at the start of every shift, and have the dogs carry out a few “commands,” or tricks, putting the officers at ease. This gives them an opportunity to speak to the handlers, who will switch hats and be peer counselors, should any of them have an issue they want to talk about.

“These dogs are the best icebreaker or segue into that conversation,” said Thomas.

"Detective" Jenny, a therapy dog from the NYPD’s Employee Assistance Unit, was available to anyone who needed her at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC for the funeral of a fallen policeman, Wilbert Mora, on Feb. 2, 2022. (Dave Paone/The Epoch Times)

January Tragedy

The therapy dogs aren’t solely for suicide prevention and outreach. They’re on call for any crisis that occurs.

In January of this year, two NYPD officers were shot in the line of duty, one dying at the hospital a few hours later.

“A sergeant actually put it over the radio, ′Have EAU respond.′ That means what we’re doing is working,” Thomas said. He arrived at Harlem Hospital with his dog, Piper.

“Mostly what I saw is that people just wanted to take comfort in petting them and not have to say anything,” Thomas said. “People wanted to approach them, pet them, just take a minute to remove themselves from that situation and just grieve with the dog, pet the dog, take comfort in the dog. Again, you don’t have to say anything when you’re petting a dog.”

The night of the shootings and the following day, Thomas said “hundreds of cops” petted the two dogs, which in turn helped alleviate the anxiety and stress they were feeling.

The second officer died a few days later, and there were two separate wakes and funerals held for them at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the following weeks. Piper, Jenny, and the unit’s third dog, Glory, were on hand all four days for the families and the members of the commands.

At PO Jason Rivera’s wake, his widow and brother-in-law sat privately behind the altar petting Jenny for a while.

Puppies Behind Bars

The NYPD’s therapy dogs were trained by prison inmates, through a nonprofit called Puppies Behind Bars. In the program, each dog begins its training at about eight weeks old and lives with its incarcerated trainer for about two years.

After that, the soon-to-be handlers receive a 14-day training at the prison. That means cops are literally in a prison, interacting with inmates.

“It’s intimidating,” Thomas said.

But the inmates “were extremely professional and knowledgeable,” he said, and “it was a remarkable experience.”

The Real Deal

Each EAU dog has paperwork that confirms he or she is fully certified and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Each wears a harness with embroidered patches that identify him or her as an NYPD therapy dog in the department’s Health and Wellness Section.

The three dogs, which are all yellow Labrador retrievers, can carry out 54 commands, including “high five” and “salute.”

‘Tell Me a Story’

Another command is “tell me a story,” where a person may be seated on the floor and the dog crawls into his or her lap, placing its weight on the human. This command is effective when a child is a victim and may find it difficult to explain what happened to a detective. The child could tell the dog, without any adults in view, but with one listening from out of sight. The NYPD’s dogs haven’t yet been used in this situation, but the “tell me a story” command has been used to comfort victims.

Mahon recalled times when Piper “literally had been sobbed on” when comforting someone experiencing trauma.

The Future

The EAU started with two dogs under New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Immediately after taking office, Mayor Eric Adams gave the green light for a third. Wachter anticipates adding a fourth dog by the end of the year.

In the meantime, Piper, Glory, and Jenny continue to do the job themselves. As Thomas put it, “There’s no better tool we can utilize than these K-9s to create a bridge between us and the people who might need help.”