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UAPD Says Goodbye to Fine Officer
UAPD says goodbye to a fine officer
On Thursday September 7th, UAPD will formally say farewell to K-9 Officer Hera. Officer Hera was stricken with Chronic Kidney Failure from an unknown cause early in July. While doctors struggled to diagnose the cause of the failure, Officer Hera's condition worsened until she was finally released from duty and laid to rest on July 14th, 2006. A memorial for Officer Hera will be held at the flag poles at the east end of Buchtel Commons on Thursday September 7th. The men and women of the University of Akron Police Department will miss Hera as she was a fine officer and a great asset for the department not only for her public relations aspects but for the great work she did as a trained K-9 Officer not only for UAPD but for Akron Police as well as the Summit County Sheriff's office. Some of her most impressive accomplishments were: Tracking a robbery suspect who was later arrested, tracking bank robbery suspects which led to an arrest, clearing suspicious packages for UAPD and Copley PD, numerous building searches to check for explosives, hard tracking and identifying stolen equipment that led to an arrest as well as constantly protecting her handler and other officers on hazardous details. Officer Hera's partner Officer Pam Helmick stated " To some she was just a tool, to others she was an officer, to the bad guys she was the enemy, to me she was my partner, my friend, and my protector. She will never be forgotten."