Administration

UCPD is proud to welcome K-9 Officer Blake, an energetic, one-year-old Belgian Malinois. Blake is the second canine officer to join UCPD since the K-9 Unit was reinstituted in 2016.

Blake was born in Serbia and then purchased by a trainer in the Netherlands, who began preparing Blake for work in either military or law enforcement service. A short time later, Top Dog Police K9 Training and Consulting purchased Blake and began his preparatory training as a police canine. Blake has completed a course in explosives detection and is currently obtaining specialized training to be certified for patrol duties.

Blake is assigned to Officer Larry Johnson, who is happy to work with a K-9 partner. Officer Johnson acknowledges that Blake does important work that human officers cannot do but jokes that “working with Blake is like working with a four-year-old child, but he listens better than most partners and there are never any disagreements about where to stop for lunch.” Blake is trained to assist Officer Johnson on patrol, helping to conduct searches and apprehend suspects.

Previously, Officer Johnson worked for the Santa Paula Police Department where he was assigned to K-9 Zak. After Zak retired from Santa Paula PD in 2015, the Johnsons adopted him as a family pet. In November 2015, Larry joined UCPD as a Patrol and Field Training Officer and helped to reestablish the UCPD K-9 Unit.

The UCPD K-9 program is made possible with funds generously donated by the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center (RRMC) and UCLA Housing. This partnership has been instrumental in making the program successful.