A 9-year-old Urbana police officer named Scooby received a donated bulletproof vest Wednesday. Scooby, a black lab-mix dog, has been with his handler, officer Jay Loschen, for four years.

The University chapter of Student Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society, a national organization, raised $825 for Illinois Vest-a-Dog to donate the vest.

Illinois Vest-a-Dog is a non-profit organization that purchases and donates bullet- and stab-resistant vests for dogs serving in Illinois.

Kelli Kramer, graduate student and member of the student society, said the group was very excited about the opportunity to help a police dog serving central Illinois.

“We used dues that each member of the group pays and sold fundraiser mugs to raise money,” Kramer said. “We also really wanted to give the vest locally.”

Loschen, who called himself Scooby’s dad, said the dog goes home with him at night and interacts with his family.

Police dogs are often used for their exceptional sense of smell, but they are also protectors for their handlers. When these dogs go to work, they have one mission – to protect their partners by whatever means and ensure that they both return home safely, according to Illinois Vest-a-Dog.

To date, the organization has vested 142 K-9s.

Lee Harrison, director of Illinois Vest-a-Dog, said she became interested in protecting police dogs during her retirement after 30 years of law enforcement service.

Harrison said she and other volunteers run programs, sell books and accept tax-deductible donations.

“We have a waiting list that any Illinois officer can ask to have his partner put on,” Harrison said. “There are also people who donate to a specific officer.”

Harrison and her husband pay all administrative costs for running the organization so one-hundred percent of the money raised goes to vesting dogs.

“Police dogs are more than just an investigative tool,” Harrison said in a pamphlet. “They are their officer’s partner. They face the same danger at the same time. By protecting the K-9, we protect the officer as well.”

Loschen said that 90 percent of the time, when an officer gets shot at, they die.

“Scooby is an officer,” Loschen said. “He has his own badge.”

Because the vests, which are made specially for dogs, are more expensive than vests for humans, police departments often cannot afford vesting their dogs or do not see it as a priority.

Scooby is a passive tracking dog, meaning he is trained not to bite or attack suspects. Instead, when he finds the person or thing he is looking for, he barks to alert officers.

For his own safety, Scooby is not allowed to sniff inside anything because even a very small amount of a narcotic can be lethal to the animal.

Though Scooby is not used to attack suspects or to find bombs, anytime he is in the line of duty, there is a possibility that something could go wrong.

“The dogs don’t choose to be officers, but they are doing a service for the community,” Kramer said. “They should be as protected as any officer that is put in the line of duty.”