Cobb County police release description of alert system after K9 dies in hot patrol car

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - A Cobb County K-9 officer died on Monday after the air conditioning malfunctioned inside a hot patrol car, according to Cobb County Police. The incident occurred while the handler was engaged in a training exercise.

The department says K-9 Officer Chase succumbed to heat-related injuries and the handler was not at fault. 

Sgt. Wayne Delk of the Cobb County Police Department explains the car in question was not the handler's usual vehicle and that the air conditioning malfunctioned for an unknown reason.

"The car was still running, but he noticed when he went to go check on K-9 Chase that the air conditioning was not, and the vehicle's temperature was running high and K-9 Chase was unresponsive," explained Delk.

Other K-9 officers were in separate patrol cars during that time as well, and officials confirm that all handlers were regularly checking on their partners during breaks every hour. The department emphasizes that there are a series of safety systems within the patrol car that should have activated in the event of AC failure or vehicle shutdown.

"For whatever reason, there was a cascading breakdown, and those things didn't happen properly, so there should have been a few notifications. That's still being investigated by our officers to find out why that vehicle malfunctioned," Delk said.

K-9 Officer Chase, a four-year-old canine, had been serving Cobb County alongside his partner Officer Neill since April 2020. The department says officers are grieving the loss of their colleague who they say who was loved by all.

"My understanding is not only was Officer Neill affected by this, but his entire family as well," added Delk.

The Cobb County Police Department is investigating the death of K-9 Officer Chase. (Credit: Cobb County Police Department)

On Wednesday morning, the department released a description of the K9 vehicle alert system on their Facebook page.

The statement claims that the kennels used for the K9s inside patrol cars are "truly the dog's favorite place to be." It also says that handlers "routinely returns to the vehicle" to let K9s out and to verify the vehicle is still operating properly. The statement also says that patrol vehicles are always left running with the air conditioning on and if it fails, the car's lights and sirens are supposed to come on, the windows automatically go down, and a fan turns on. 

The department says that in this case, the vehicle had multiple failures. 

The department is actively investigating the cause of the equipment malfunctions.