Going to the dog

Deepa Bharath

Newport Beach Girl Scout Troop 2100 reacted in its own way to the

Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The girls decided to vest a Newport Beach police dog.

The group unanimously agreed to the idea presented by Jessica

Wertheim, a seventh-grader at Corona del Mar High School.

“My mom and I were looking at the newspaper and reading about this

police dog that was working in New York [at the World Trade Center

site],” Jessica said. “He fell down there and got hurt, and we read that

if he had a vest, that could have been prevented.”

The girls discussed how to pick a dog.

“We wanted to meet the dog we vested,” Jessica said. “So we thought,

‘Why not vest a dog from the Newport Beach Police Department?”’

It costs about $550 to vest a dog, and is more complicated than just

buying a vest off the shelf and putting it on the dog. Each bulletproof

vest, which also cushions the dogs during falls, must be tailored to fit.

The girls earned the money by wrapping Christmas presents at Zany

Brainy in Corona del Mar Plaza and organizing a bake sale at the Girl

Scouts Olympics.

Now they need a dog to vest.

It could take up to a year, said Newport Beach Police Canine Officer

Mike Johnson. His dog, Daro, has served the department for six years and

is expected to retire next year.

The three dogs in the department already have their vests, which were

also donated, Johnson said.

Officers use the vests when they send their dogs out on high-risk, yet

short, searches, he said.

“You get attached to the dog,” Johnson said. “He is like your partner,

your child. And you’d hate it if anything happens to them. If they have a

vest on, it’s one less chance they’ll get shot and hurt.”

Officers, however, don’t use the vests on searches where the wait is

long because it is not practical, he said. The dogs would overheat in

Newport Beach’s warm climate.

Samantha Turner, a seventh-grader at Corona del Mar High, said troop

members “were gung-ho about the idea.”

“All of us love dogs,” she said. “It was a real easy decision.”

She said the girls also figured vests would not be high on the Police

Department’s priority list.

The project has helped the girls contribute positively to their

community, said Margie Buckingham, one of the troop leaders.

“In this community, often we have young people thinking life is just

about them,” she said. “This was a good thing because they thought about

what they can do to help the community.”

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .