SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County District Attorney's office has released the results of their investigation into the death of a police K-9 service dog in the summer of 2023.
Loki, an 8-year-old Belgian Malinois, was part of the Utah Department of Corrections' K-9 unit since 2017. On July 13, 2023, Loki died after being left inside the officer's vehicle.
The DA's office on Friday said after investigating Loki's death, they declined to file charges against the officer who was in charge of Loki.
According to the investigation, the officer used Loki to search a warehouse at the Utah State Correctional Facility around 2:40 p.m. Then at 3:12, the officer parked his vehicle at the "kennel" building and went inside, leaving Loki in the vehicle. The officer then went to help search for a missing tool in another area of the facility and returned at 6:30 p.m.
At 6:44 p.m., the officer reportedly went to the kennel to retrieve Loki, but then realized he was not there and was still in the police vehicle, which was not running.
"We went through the analysis, we reached the conclusion that this was a tragic mistake that happened," said Sim Gill, Salt Lake County District Attorney.
The district attorney declined to file charges, saying the officer's actions weren't deemed "reckless" or "criminal negligence."
"For us to conclude that he acted recklessly, he would need to have been consciously aware of the risk of keeping Loki in the vehicle and disregarded it," the DA's office wrote in the report. "[The officer] going to get Loki from his kennel instead of the vehicle where he was left indicates that the officer believed Loki to be in his kennel; he, therefore, could not have consciously disregarded the risk because he had forgotten he was in the vehicle."
The DA's office added that the police vehicle was equipped with a specialized K-9 "heat alert" system, which would automatically roll down the windows, start the ignition and turn on a fan when the interior temperature reached 85 degrees. However, the system was not turned on and thus did not activate when the temperature rose.
"If the officers had been trained and certainly, if that system had been operationalized, then then this whole incident could have been avoided," said Gill.
Glen Mills, the Director of Communications and Government Relations with Utah Department of Corrections spoke to a lack of training and awareness in this tragedy.
"That's the real tragedy here that we acknowledge and we take accountability for," said Mills.
The DA's office said it's believed Loki died of heat stroke.
"This particular vehicle was equipped with an alert system, but there was not proper training in place to make or policies in place to make sure that it was being used to its highest capabilities," said Mills.
He says it's important for them to take every step possible to make sure an incident like this doesn't happen again.
"It will require a certain amount of annual training so that our handlers are up to speed on how to use these systems properly and appropriately," said Mills.
Mills says Loki's handler is still employed by the Department of Corrections, but that they are no longer a canine handler.
He went on to say that an internal disciplinary committee will now review this case for potential discipline for that officer. Mills says that could take anywhere from weeks to even months before a decision is made.
Mills said to his knowledge, there are no other people that could be looking at the specific discipline in this incident.
