It’s been nearly 20 years since the North Royalton Police Department has had a K-9, but that’s about to change thanks to a grant program by Ohio native and Pittsburgh Steelers’ Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Yes, thanks to a Pittsburgh Steelers football player, or rather the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, the local police department will re-establish its K-9 unit as a recipient of a $12,800 grant. The funds will cover the purchasing of a police dog, kennels and a bullet-proof vest for the animal.
The good news doesn’t stop there either.
A chance conversation between North Royalton’s Director of Public Safety Bruce Campbell and a fellow member of the Ohio Association of Public Safety Directors, led to the City scoring complimentary, 10-week K-9 training led by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, a value of approximately $8,000, Campbell said.
“They will help us in selecting a dog and securing the training program. This is being done out of goodwill and at no cost to the city,” Campbell said. “We are all big with regionalization and sharing our services with one another. They will also allow us to do one year of follow-up training.”
Buster, the department’s former K-9, retired in 2000 due to an ailment and was never replaced.
“We’re going to lean heavily on the academy,” said Police Chief Kenneth Bilinovich on working with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “They’re offering free training and we’ve reserved the slot for spring. They have roughly 35 dogs in the state and they’re the largest K-9 operation. They can help us select an animal from a pre-approved kennel and they also offer a review board who will meet with your police candidates, interview them, run them through drills, run reports and make a recommendation for a handler. It always helps to have people with expertise.”
Campbell said a handful of police officers have expressed interest in being the local K-9 handler, and the decision as to who gets the dog is up to the police chief.
The dog will assist in suspect apprehension, narcotics missions/drug recognition, school resources and tracking, such as locating a missing person or finding a suspect who has fled a crime scene.
“Narcotic recognition will be huge,” Campbell said. “In today’s society, with this huge drug epidemic and the many drug issues, whether it is people using drugs, selling drugs or transporting drugs, having a K-9 is just another wonderful tool to supplement what the officers already do. It’s also nice public relations with the community and a good way to have a conversation with a police officer and interact with a police officer on good terms.”
The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation, now in its 12th season distributing K-9 grants, invites police and fire departments across the country to submit proposals detailing their needs. A local officer brought the grant program to Campbell’s attention, he said, and he applied by providing an application with reports and graphs showing details about the department, its efforts to be proactive and the problems facing the community including drug abuse and overdoses.
The Foundation has distributed more than $1.92 million since 2007, according to information released by The Giving Back Fund, a national public charity that creates and professionally manages charitable foundations and other philanthropic programs for athletes and other big names.

By SARA MACHO HILL
Contributing Writer