ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Four-legged friends have become assets to law enforcement throughout the years. K-9s have joined the men and women on the road to keep communities safe. However, it wasn’t until 1985 that New York met its first female K-9 handler.
“I’ve always loved animals. I’ve always had dogs all my life and I just thought it was amazing to watch these dogs work,” Cindy Mull said.
She joined the Rochester Police Department in 1980 as a beat cop. It was a job that seemed to come easily for her.
“I happened to see an ad on a bulletin board that they were giving a test. I’m like, 'might as well,' ” Mull shrugged, “So I just did it. I just took to it.”
She served five years on the job before seeing an opening for the K9 unit. She’d always grown up with dogs, loved the idea of working with a dog and being able to bring it home with her after her shift. Mull was in one of the first groups to be trained to be K-9 handlers. The now-retired officer remembers groups being brought in to train the handful of officers, including herself, to learn the skills her dog would need on the job, as well as the skills she would need to control her K-9 and lead the pair to success. However, a first for New York at the time, the new unit came with its obstacles.
“At that time, our dogs weren't born, they weren't trained, they weren't bred. They put an ad in the paper and if anybody had a German shepherd, they wanted them to call us, and we'll see if we could take it. So you were taking a totally untrained dog that probably had some behavioral issues to begin with, and trying to make them into a police dog and teach them,” she explained. “Sometimes it was difficult because dogs, unlike people think, they don't bite naturally. It's generally out of fear. But you have to teach these dogs how to not bite out of fear and how to be in control. That's the hard part.”
Her first dog came with its own behavior problems. Any concerns she had for her first K-9, she remembers being dismissed, and blamed on her lack of control as a woman on the job.
“I didn't get any of the support that the guys got. They would always pat them on the back and, you know. But if my dog wouldn't do what I want, it was because I was a girl,” Mull recalled. “That's what they felt. And they felt because I was a girl. And so your voice isn't deep enough, you know? You gotta yell louder, you know you're going to do this.”
Mull remembers multiple instances of her K-9 attacking her. At one point, the dog was released from her care for a night after it had attacked her.
“I had nobody and I had nobody that I could go to, because there had never been anybody in my position before,” Mull said.
She still has scars on her hands, among other places, from where her first dog bit her.
“He’d get a little excited, and all of a sudden his eyes glaze over and he'd go after me. And I kept [hearing] 'oh no, it's you, and you're not strong enough. You're not tough enough. And you know you need to be the alpha,' blah blah blah. Those are such outdated thinking nowadays,” she admitted.
Her first K-9 was released from her care, and inherited for a short time to an officer for the Buffalo Police Department. Her former K-9 attacked an officer there as well, and that’s how it died. An autopsy revealed the dog had a brain tumor.
“I can't change who I am. But I was young enough that I was willing to try. I would have done anything to stay because like I said, I'm too stubborn to give up. And as soon as somebody tells me I can't do something, then I'm heels down and I'm on, and I'm gonna do it whether you like it or not. I'll prove you guys wrong,” she shrugged.
And that’s what she did. Mull was given an opportunity to have a second K-9, Sammy.
“He turned out great. He was a great working dog, and he was a big mush. He loved people. He was a great, non-aggressive dog. I never had to worry about him. And he wouldn't bite unless he was a threat,” Mull said.
Mull served on the K-9 unit for seven years. After Sammy passed, she knew he couldn’t be replaced.
“And there’s our mushy side, giving mommy a kiss,” she smiled. “I miss it. I miss him. You never not miss an animal that’s been through your life.”
Mull paved the way for the future of female K-9 handlers. She’s still in touch with the group of trainees that followed her, one officer also being a female.
“You have to put up with it. Well, I don’t like being treated like this. None of us do. But you can’t give in. You can’t give up because that’s what they want,” Mull advised. “That's the kind of thing that stays with you your whole life. I can do anything I can. I'll get through anything. You know, being early on the job just as a policewoman wasn't easy because we were only, like, the third class of girls to hit the street, because policewomen before that just were insane.”
No other dogs have given her a hard time, but if they had, she laughs and says, “Honey, I’ve been bit by bigger dogs.”
Mull retired from the service in 2005. She’s owned at least 15 dogs throughout her life. She remembers days on the job where she’d take in dogs from the streets to nurse them back to health until she could find a home for them. Now, Bernie is her only four-legged friend under her roof. He’s 11 years old, and will likely be her last so she can fully enjoy her retirement.
Her years on the job taught her quite a bit about herself and the world, she said, and she encourages other officers to follow in her footsteps and not to give in.
“As stubborn as I am, I wasn't giving in. No matter what. No matter what, with, or without help, I was not giving in," she said.
