Saturday night Burbank K-9 Officer Joel Rodriguez and his partner, Kimo, both end almost a decade together as working partners.
As of 10:00 pm, Burbank’s K-9 Officer Joel Rodriguez and his K-9 Partner, Kimo, made their final radio call 10-7, end of shift.
Kimo, an 8-year-old Belgian Shepard has been Officer Rodriguez’s fur partner for the last 8 years he has been credited with numerous apprehensions, including finding a murder suspect, several burglary suspects along with locating drugs and weapons on several occasions. In his eight-year history, he has bitten eight suspects, forcing them to surrender and be taken into custody. He was trained for tracking and locating suspects and drugs and has done it well.
Kimo has been seen at the Burbank Police Foundations Family Fun Festival putting on several displays of his talents searching cars tackling suspects, locating hidden suspects even in trash cans.
Officer Joel Rodriguez, who has been in law enforcement for over twenty years, has been promoted to Detective, will remain in the patrol division for a while because of the shortage of officers.
Kimo will retire and enjoy the easy life a dog deserves minus the fast response and siren going. His new role now will be the family pet with Detective Rodriguez, who previously had his last K-9 partner, Rocco, who moved on over the Rainbow Bridge a year or so ago.
Burbank Police will still have two K-9 dogs and handlers. Officers John Embelton and Officer Joseph Nunez.
