K9 Eddy rises to occasion for Deputy Thompson

By Mitch Talley

How would K9 drug dog Eddy respond in a real emergency if his handler’s life was ever in danger?


Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Todd Thompson says that thought lingered in the back of his mind until a traffic stop gone wrong in December 2017 provided the answer.

“There was a time when we first got Eddy,” Thompson remembers, “that he was real timid. We try to make his training as chaotic as possible because during a real situation, people are gonna yell and scream and a table might get knocked over and glass might get broke. When he was young and heard a noise like that during training, he’d come off the bite and look around like, ‘What was that?’ Then I’d have to encourage him to refocus and keep biting.”


One day, while on routine traffic duty nearly three years ago, Thompson’s doubts about his K9 partner faded away.


While on routine traffic patrol, the deputy noticed the passenger in a passing car “just acting weird.”

“You could just tell body language-wise that he wanted to disappear when he rode past,” he recalls.


As he followed behind the car, Thompson soon discovered the license plate on the car was registered to another vehicle, giving him probable cause to make a traffic stop.

“I turned my lights on and (the female driver) turned her left blinker on but kept driving,” he explained. “Then she turned on her right blinker and turned it off. I’m thinking, OK, this is weird – something’s not right. Then, instead of pulling over on the side of the road like most normal people, she pulled into a long driveway and went all the way up and turned to the left.”


By now, Thompson was two roads down into Gordon County, with no other officers at the scene to offer assistance if needed, and he was growing more and more suspicious. As he approached the vehicle on the passenger side, immediately the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand up and he radioed for backup.


“What’s your name, sir?” the deputy says he asked the passenger. “He mumbled something, so I asked him again and he mumbled again. I said, listen, I can’t understand that – what’s your name? He finally tells me his name and gives me his date of birth, but he keeps reaching for stuff in the car. I don’t know what he’s reaching for. I don’t know what he’s doing. I said, step on out of the vehicle; you’re making me nervous. I popped the case on my handcuffs and told him, ‘You’re not under arrest, but I’m detaining you. You’re moving around way too much.’ As soon as I popped my handcuffs, I told him, ‘Don’t do anything stupid,’ but he bolted!”

Thompson chased after the man, striking him with his Taser and momentarily sending him falling to the ground before he jerked the Taser prongs off his back and took off running again.


Minus his handcuffs and his Taser now rendered ineffective after its initial firing, Thompson sensed the situation was escalating and an altercation broke out between the two men.

“I look up and the female’s out of the vehicle by then, and she’s walking over kind of where we’re at, pacing back and forth frantically,” Thompson says. “I’m thinking, OK, is she going to help him or is she going to help me? What’s her role in this now? I’ve got some backup coming, but I don’t know how far away they are, so I’m telling the guy to quit fighting me.”


The struggle continued, however, and eventually, Thompson decided he needed help from Eddy, so he managed to push the button on his remote, opening the door to the dog’s cage. Eddy came running and soon latched onto the leg of the suspect, who tried to fight him off and force open his jaws, causing Eddy to yelp and run away.
“I had to encourage him to come back – no, no, no, buddy, come on back, I’ve got my hands full here,” Thompson recalls telling his K9 partner.


Shortly after, Thompson saw a man arrive in a truck and was relieved to discover it was Gordon County Sheriff Mitch Ralston, who tossed him a pair of handcuffs out of his vehicle.


“As soon as Mitch showed up, everybody else started showing up, too,” Thompson says. “As soon as Mitch stepped foot beside us, the guy put both his hands beside his back. I thought, man, if you’d have done that 10 minutes ago, none of this would have happened.”


The outcome could have been much worse, as it turned out that the suspect had been arrested 27 times in his life, had an outstanding parole warrant, and was a suspect in an armed robbery in Gordon County the week before.

“It was a horrible situation,” Thompson says, “but Eddy really grew from it. Now he’s a totally different dog. It really matured him and it was good for him. It happened at a vulnerable time in his life, where I felt like, is he gonna step up to the plate when I need him, and now I know he will.”


In fact, the two partners have been very busy in the past few weeks. First, they teamed up for their third consecutive Top Dual Purpose Dog title in the annual USPCA (United States Police Canine Association) regional certification held in Alabama Aug. 31-Sept. 3, then played a role in the Sept. 10 capture of a fugitive wanted for shooting two men, including a fellow Whitfield County deputy.

The courts have determined that certifications like the USPCA are necessary to assess a canine team’s abilities, which can prove beneficial to help convict criminals. Thompson and Eddy had been very successful at USPCA the past two years, but Thompson wasn’t sure if they would be able to maintain their win streak as they haven’t been able to train nearly as much as in the past due to the pandemic, plus Eddy was coming off a five-week-long rest in July prescribed by his vet to help with a knee problem that had left him limping.


During the inactive period, however, Eddy had gained about six pounds, but it didn’t seem to bother him as Thompson says he gave some of his best performances ever – taking home medals for second-place finishes in Scent Rooms, Overall Patrol Dog I, and Obedience that totaled up for enough points to earn first place overall as Top Dual Purpose Dog.


Once they returned home from the competition, just a few days later, Eddy and a bloodhound were called upon to help track the suspect through a swampy area along Bandy Lake for about two and a half hours before they became too exhausted and had to turn the search over to a fresh set of canines that picked up the scent and were able to locate the fugitive within 10 to 15 minutes later. The plan had been to use teams of two dogs in the pursuit, first with a bloodhound doing what it does best – track down humans – and then a bite dog like Eddy ready to move in for the final apprehension.


Thompson says the help that the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office received during the manhunt from multiple agencies from around the state was the most he has seen in his 18 years as a lawman.


He was likewise impressed with the support he witnessed from appreciative local residents as the various law enforcement agencies teamed up to find the fugitive.

“I started noticing the community and private citizens thanking us for our job, thanking us all for being out there,” Thompson said, recalling a man who drove around handing out cold drinks to officers and the business owners who allowed lawmen to use their building during the search.


With the recent protests against police in other parts of the nation, Thompson acknowledged there are bad apples in every profession, but believes that for the most part, his fellow officers all over America just want to protect other citizens and make the streets safer for everyone.

In response to the current tension, “the only thing you can do is you get up and you lace your boots up and put your uniform on and go to work and be the most professional person you can to whoever it is that you encounter – white, black, or brown – it don’t matter,” Thompson says. “Thank God we live in a community where people are not out here burning down restaurants or throwing bricks through windows. I think it’s not just law enforcement that don’t like what’s going on against law enforcement officers, it’s a lot of the citizens also hate what’s going in the world nowadays. In 2020, I’ve had more people buy my food at a restaurant, I’ve had people come up and give me the produce out of their garden, buy me a drink from a store. I think people understand we’re in a hard job, and we really appreciate their support.”


As a veteran lawman who’s now 41 years old, he worries that if the controversy continues, it will become harder and harder to find young people willing to make the sacrifices necessary for a career as a police officer.


“Think about it, I mean why would you want to go into a profession that it seems like everybody hates you? It seems like you get scrutinized for everything you do. You know, we make the comment at times, these lawyers – and I’ve got good friends who are lawyers so I don’t mean this derogatory at all – but our split-second decisions that we make on the job, a lawyer has months to tear that apart. We have split seconds to make those decisions – good, bad or indifferent, we make ‘em and we’ve got to live with ‘em, but a lawyer, when it goes to court, months they have to analyze that split-second decision. This is a very hard profession.”

Still, Thompson believes that “most people in this community loves us and respects us.”


The value of law enforcement, he says, was never more apparent than during the recent manhunt when residents feared for their safety while the fugitive was on the loose. Thompson believes apprehending the suspect was not only a huge win for law enforcement but also a huge win for the community.


“There was so many people after we caught that guy, thank God! You know, they can sleep, they can rest, they don’t have to worry about the boy trying to steal their car or kicking in their door during the middle of the night,” he said. “I say this with all the protests and the turmoil, we’re needed. I think people really understand that without law enforcement, it would be chaos. I would not want to live without law enforcement, whether I’m a part of it or not. And yeah, there’s some bad cops out there. It’s just kinda odd being in a profession that seems to be hated right now. I don’t know if it’ll ever get any better, but I think those good stories (like catching the fugitive) help us. We’re doing good things and we continue to do good things not only as an agency but as individuals, and it shows and it’s appreciated by the community. Maybe if good things like that keep happening, all it’s gonna do is help.”