In the News

 
 
Officer Bob Boleen & K-9 Echo, Woodbury Police K-9 Fund Founder & Executive Director Donna Smith-Stafford, Officer Emily Wessels & K-9 Kane

Ofc. Bob Boleen & Echo, Donna Stafford, Ofc. Emily Wessels & Kane

Woodbury woman is driving force behind city’s k-9 program

By MARY DIVINE, Pioneer Press November 19, 2023 at 5:45 a.m.

When her husband died of a heart attack in 2014, Donna Smith Stafford knew she wanted to donate money in his memory to help the Woodbury Public Safety Department.

Bruce Stafford served as a firefighter in Woodbury for 22 years, retiring as fire chief. He also was a paramedic for 35 years with HealthEast and served in the Minnesota National Guard.

“When he passed away, Woodbury Public Safety was amazing to me,” Stafford said. “I mean, they cut my grass for two years. They parked a squad outside my house during the visitation and funeral to make sure my home was safe. It was always, ‘What do you need?’ They were so loving and caring to me. It’s, like, how do you say thank you?”

The idea came to Stafford one day as she was sitting in her office and looking out the window.

“I never know what people believe in, but it literally came to me from above,” she said. “I felt a light tap on my shoulder, and then I heard Bruce saying, ‘Dog.’”

Woodbury Public Safety Detective Adam Sack and K-9 Otis

Detective Adam Sack & K-9 Otis

Meet otis, the woodbury police departments k-9 partner for calm in crisis

By MATT MCKINNEY , STAR TRIBUNE
November 18, 2023 - 4:49 PM

Everyone in the Woodbury Police Department knows that if you give this one officer a high five, he's likely to return it — but what he really wants is a Milk-Bone.

Any flavor.

Trained to sit with people in crisis, Otis the therapy dog reports for duty with Woodbury police detective Adam Sack. The English golden retriever rides in Sack's unmarked squad car, wears a blue vest, and has gone out on numerous calls since he joined the department last year.

"It really lightens the situation when we take him out," said Sack.

Sack often partners with Angie Shackleton, a Washington County social worker embedded with the Woodbury Police Department, and along with Otis they look for ways to help people struggling with mental illness, homelessness or a crisis in their lives.