Tama Police Officer Logan Andrews with his new partner K9 Officer Creed. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The newest Tama Police Officer doesn’t carry a badge because he doesn’t need to. He’s all hair and teeth with puppy dog eyes and walks with a four-legged strut that would make a poodle bark. I am talking about Creed, Tama PD’s new K9 officer.

To talk about Creed, you must also talk about 24-year-old Logan Andrews. Andrews is not originally from Tama-Toledo, but he has been working for Tama PD for the last two and a half years. When the idea was initially thrown around in the department to have a K9 officer on the team, Andrews immediately threw his hat into the ring.

A lifelong dog lover, Andrews already had the goal of one day becoming a K9 officer. Everything was falling into place.

Once the money was raised and the wheels were in motion, Andrews went to Code Blue K9 to meet his new partner. Call it serendipity, fate, or coincidence, but Andrews’ new pup partner happened to share a name with one of his favorite bands, Creed. A good sign to start the partnership, the dynamic duo then went through 13 weeks of training in Minnesota with Code Blue K9.

The first thing the training dealt with was trust. Andrews and Creed worked on building an unbreakable bond that would bring the two closer together and make the training process that much easier.

“A lot went into K9 Training. The first thing is creating the bond with your police dog so he will trust you through the process,” Andrews said. “We went from narcotics training to obedience to Patrol work. It is broken down into sections how we introduced the training to the dogs.”

At the end of the 13 weeks, Officer Creed became patrol certified and a regional certified detector dog.

None of this could have been made possible without the generosity of many, from food to squeaky toys, donations, and grants to supply everything that Officer Creed needs to remain a healthy and vital member of the Tama Police Department.

“There are so many advantages to having the K9 but the main one is you have a 4-legged partner that will do anything to protect you,” Officer Andrews said about Creed. “I am looking forward to keeping the community safe with K9 Creed and creating a career full of memories. I am looking forward to our rookie year at the PD1 trials in August to compete with the best of the best Police K9s.”

So, from time to time, you may see him out there chasing a ball or sniffing out a criminal. Just remember that it’s the dynamic duo of Officers Andrews and Creed working hard to keep the community safe.