Saving the life of a K9 officer can come down to seconds and a revolutionary device now available in the state will help law enforcement train better for the unexpected.
“The fact that they’re able to give themselves day in and day out for us and everybody else and sacrifice their body and not ask anything of us in return is remarkable,” Connecticut State Police trooper Matthew Warren said.
On Tuesday, Hartford Healthcare’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation or CESI unveiled a robotic dog that can simulate various injuries, from a gunshot wound to a broken bone to a blocked airway.
“Everything is exactly like a real dog,” explained Trooper Philip Soucy. “It bleeds like a dog would, so your hands get covered in blood, so it increases your stress, so just the realism is out of this world.”
“It’s really going to up the ante for them on the realism of actually packing real injuries,” Stephen Donahue, CESI’s Director of Operations, said.
Used by the military and special forces, the robotic dog is the first one in the country available to local law enforcement agencies. There are only 31 in the world.
“The medical portion is very small in what we do, so having something like this bridges the gap…the old method was just scoop your dog, throw him into the car and drive to the hospital as fast as you can,” Soucy said.
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Connecticut troopers say they are embracing the training knowing it has the potential to save their partner.
“The soul that they put into it for us to rescue other people, to save other people, to protect people, that’s a…you can’t put a price on it,” said Warren.
