News Releases

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, August 4, 2015

The Montgomery County Police Department’s K9 Lambert has received a ballistic vest thanks to several nonprofit organizations, Vested Interest in K9s, Inc., and the Henry A. Strohminger Family Foundation, Incorporated. The Strohminger Family Foundation, based in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, donated the cost of Lambert's vest, which was $950.00.

K9 Lambert is four and one-half years old and has been a Montgomery County Police K9 for three and one-half years. He is a mixed breed (German Shepherd and Malinois), and is named after the former National Football League (NFL) Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker, Jack Lambert. K9 Lambert is trained in many areas, to include article searching, tracking, building searching, apprehension, and narcotics detection. His handler, Officer Bill Seidel, says that Lambert is a great partner.

Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. is a 501c (3) charity located in East Taunton, Massachusetts. The charity’s mission is to provide bullet and stab protective vests and other assistance to dogs of law enforcement and related agencies throughout the United States. The nonprofit was established in 2009 to assist law enforcement agencies with this potentially lifesaving body armor for their four-legged K9 officers. Since its establishment in 2009, through private and corporate partnerships, Vested Interest in K9s, Inc. has provided over 1417 law enforcement dogs in 49 states with protective vests at a total cost of over 1.3 million dollars. Each vest costs $950.00 and has a 5 year warranty.

The organization orders the United States made vests exclusively from distributor Regency Police Supply in Hyannis, Massachusetts; the company also does the custom embroidery on the body armor. Vests are manufactured by Armor Express in Central Lake, Michigan.

New K9 graduates as well as K9s with expired vests are eligible to participate in the program. The program is open to certified law enforcement dogs who are employed in the United States and are at least 19 months of age.

For more information about Vested Interest in K9s, including information about volunteer opportunities with the organization, please call 508-824-6978. Tax deductible donations and event listings are via the website: www.vik9s.org.

RLI