Latest news with #ShawnKudron
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
La Crosse County remembers its fallen police officers
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – Each year, police departments in La Crosse County host a La Crosse County Peace Officer Memorial Ceremony as part of National Police Week. This year, the La Crosse Police Department hosted the ceremony. Police Chief Shawn Kudron says it's an honor to host an event recognizing officers who have given their lives in the area and across the county. 'It's a time for us to reflect on officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice to their communities. It's also a day to celebrate those who have chosen law enforcement as their profession and serving their communities. We come together today on Peace Officer Memorial Day, May fifteenth, to respect and honor with our communities those that have chosen law enforcement.' La Crosse County Sheriff John Siegel says it's always important for everyone to think about those who have lost their lives while wearing the badge. 'Every year, we have law enforcement officers who lose their lives in the line of duty. Whether it be through a car crash or some other event. I think it's really important to remember the service that they provide to our community, and the service that they provided to their communities when that happens.' Chief Kudron says it's great to see community members come out to honor officers who serve their communities. 'There's men and women out there twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year that are protecting them and serving their communities. I think it's important for a community to come together, pay their respects, and be able to honor those officers here locally and across the nation.' Sheriff Siegel says people who see a ceremony like this will hopefully gain a sense of community. 'We have a lot of law enforcement in La Crosse County. The sheriff's office, the La Crosse City Police Department, and all the municipal agencies, everybody here in one place, honoring the service that we have. I hope that when people are here, they see that we have great men and women in our community that serve them.' Only three City of La Crosse officers have ever lost their lives: patrolmen Joseph Donndelinger, Frank Groeschner, and T. Perry Gates. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Yahoo
The importance of La Crosse PD's K9 unit
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WLAX/WEUX) – The La Crosse Police Department has a K9 unit that consists of four service dogs. Police Chief Shawn Kudron says each one is capable of handling many different kinds of assignments, 'Apprehension could be one thing that they do. The vast majority of their work is in narcotics detection. Whether that's a traffic stop or some other area where narcotics might be placed. Depending on the work that the officer is doing at the time, a K9 can be called to the scene to assist with that.' K9 units are required to be trained at least 16 hours per month. K( Handler, Officer Aaron Westpfahl explains, 'We try to have a well-rounded training regiment which includes narcotics detection. We do a lot of the suspect apprehension stuff because it's very important we have that trained well because when that time comes and we use them, we want to make sure they're doing it as trained. We train in various other things like obedience. We want to have a very obedient dog.' One of the department's service dogs Loki passed away unexpectedly last November. Westpfahl was Loki's handler and he says, 'Loki was heavily relied on for his narcotics detection, but that's not all he was able to do. 'We also used him for tracking both suspects and missing persons such as the elderly or a missing child. He had a really good temperament, so it was good to have him as part of the team.' The police department says while losing Loki is tough, the K9 unit is still going strong as an added resource for both the department and the community. Chief Kudron says, 'When we are out there to serve and protect the community, those k9s can be trained to assist us. They're of great assistance. We have had a long history of having K9s here. They have helped with our service to the community, and we hope to be able to continue that.' According to La Crosse Police, K9 Loki had a total of 341 detection deployments in 2024 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
