January 10, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
Goodbye K-9 “Leo”
Its been a sad week for Smithville Police Detective James Cornelius and his family.
The former K-9 officer lost his longtime partner and friend “Leo” on Monday. The dog, a Dutch Shepherd, passed away at the age of 11.
Prior to being promoted to the rank of Sergeant almost three years ago, Cornelius was the Smithville Police Department’s K-9 officer and “Leo” had been his almost constant companion since 2011. Even after “Leo” was retired from duty in 2017 he continued to live with Cornelius and his family.
“He lived with me until the day he died,” said Cornelius.
In their official capacity, Cornelius and “Leo” served six and a half years together on the police force.
“I got him in March 2011. The position of a K-9 handler came open with the department and I put in for it and was given the position. That’s when I met him. Leo was already trained but I had to get trained with him. We had to go through a couple of months of training before I was able to handle him on the road,” said Detective Cornelius.
To be successful as a K-9 unit, dog and handler have to bond. Such was the case with Detective Cornelius and “Leo”.
“He was my partner for a long time. Many times it was just he and I riding around in a car together working a 12 hour shift. Most of it was night shift. We also had to do a lot of maintenance training together. Every month, we had to do at least eight hours of training. We would go to Murfreesboro and train with other dogs and dog handlers,” said Cornelius.
And when the two could not be together, Detective Cornelius felt good knowing “Leo” was guarding his home and family.
“If I ever had to be away from home and he was there I always felt comfortable knowing that nobody would mess with the house, especially when I got married and had children. I was comfortable with him being there because he always looked after everything. He was always alert and made sure no one came around,” Cornelius continued.
Over the years, Officer Cornelius and “Leo” were instrumental in the investigation and prosecution of several drug cases.
“Mainly it was situations where there was probable cause to believe that there might be some type of drug or paraphernalia in a home or vehicle. Leo would be brought in to try and give an alert, and if there was any odor of any illegal drug or paraphernalia he would alert and give us the green light to go ahead and search and even sometimes pinpoint a location. If it was a house we could use him to hone in on the location of where that odor was coming from. We made several cases. We had at least two big marijuana busts that came in through the mail in which we were able to utilize Leo to help us pinpoint the package. Once he alerted on a package and we were able to legally open it up, something even the postmaster could not do without suspicion or probable cause,” said Detective Cornelius.
“Leo was my partner and he became a family member especially after retirement. He will be sadly missed,” added Detective Cornelius.