NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city clerk swore in the city's newest member of the police force on Tuesday — K9 Officer Rocky. 

 

The German shepherd recently completed training with his handler, Officer Michael Cogswell, and Mayor Jennifer Macksey thought he should have the same welcome as other officers. 

 

Rocky seemed a little confused as to what was happening but was calm as City Clerk Tina Leonesio asked that in addition to upholding the Constitution, he would "faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on you as a canine member of the North Adams Police Department."

 

"Woof," said his fellow police officers in response.

 

He is the first K9 that the force has had in five years and was completely funded through the Stanton Foundation, a Boston philanthropic organization that's funded animal welfare efforts and police dogs across the state. 

 

"When I say fully funded, I mean everything, everything that was purchased was purchased by the Stanton Foundation, nothing from the taxpayers," acting Police Chief Mark Bailey said. "We were given an extra check for $16,000 to cover the cost of the overtime that we accrued when we had to send Officer Cogswell and Rocky away to train."

 

The 18-month-old dog came from Shallow Creek Kennels in Pennsylvania, from which Adams' retired K9 Kumar came. He and Cogswell took a 12-week patrol school through the Berkshire County Sheriff's Office with Dwane Foisy, a master trainer for the North American Police Work Dog Association.

 

Rocky is certified tracking suspects in area searches, building searches and article searches. In the future, he will take a four-week course in narcotics detection.

 

"He can find evidence out of the ground, what he's looking for," said Cogswell. "Really, that is human odor. We can't see it, but everybody has human scent pouring off of them right now."

 

The officer said he wasn't allowed to pick out his dog and is glad he got Rocky. 

 

"He was actually the dog that I wanted when we went down to pick them and it was fortunate that it worked out that way," he said. 

 

Rocky stays at his home and has an air-conditioned Sheds 'N Stuff "penthouse suite," as the mayor described it. 

 

"He's been a great dog for me to work with and he's been tremendous in his training, honestly," Cogswell said. "So yeah, I'm very excited to have him as my partner and another member of the North Adams Police Department."

 

Lt. Anthony Beverly noted Bailey had referred to Rocky's background as history — but that's really just beginning of his history, he said.

 

"He's got a long service life here with us, with this department, with our community and he's going to do great things," said Beverly. "We're sure of that."

 

Baily said Rocky looks friendly but cautioned that he's not a pet. 

 

"I just want to let everybody know it's not a petting dog. So we're asking the public not to just run up to them and start petting or anything like that," he said. 

 

Leonesio, warned ahead of time, made sure she kept some distance in swearing the pup in. 

 

In other business, the council voted to move up the time of its meetings by half an hour to 7 p.m., ending several years of discussion on the topic at the recommendation of the General Government Committee.  Councilor Wayne Wilkinson, who had advocated for years for an earlier start time, said "hallelujah" when the motion passed with no discussion.

 

North Adams is the third to change its meeting times to earlier in the evening: Pittsfield moved its meetings from 7 to 6 p.m. two years ago and Adams last month voted to move its meetings to the same time starting in July. 

 

The first meeting for the council at 7 p.m. will be July 11.

 

The council also passed on the second vote the fiscal 2024 budget and compensation and classification plan and heard from Robert Cardimino, who said it was failing to abide by city ordinance in regard to utility companies doing work in the city, including filing bonds to insure their work.