Retired police officer donating money for K9 ballistics vest

By Jamie Azulay

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    SCARBOROUGH, Maine (WMTW) — The town of Scarborough is buying its police K9 a custom-fitted ballistics vest with the support of a generous donation from a lifelong resident. Mary Pearson is a retired police sergeant who’s found a new friend in Jax, the Belgian Malinois serving as the town’s patrol and narcotics dog.

Jax and his handler, Officer Robyn Stankevitz, have completed more than 1,000 hours of training and passed several rounds of testing.

“He is trained in apprehension, tracking, evidence search and obedience,” Stankevitz said. “And then also, he can do drug work, so sniff out narcotics.”

She and Jax are training in some capacity every day. They participate in weekly group training with other law enforcement officers, but day-to-day, the training might look like running, ball play, or practicing obedience.

“They’re basically athletes,” Stankevitz said.

The commitment a handler has to the training and care of their partner is what has always drawn Pearson to the K9 unit. While she never worked in that division during her 32-year career in law enforcement, she’s a self-proclaimed dog lover with a lot of respect for what K9 handlers do and the bond they share.

“They will literally do anything and everything for their handler,” Pearson said about watching dogs at work. “You can see it in their eyes.”

She reached out to Stankevitz to express interest in purchasing a protective vest for Jax. It’s a gift Stankevitz thinks is critical for Jax’s safety.

“Jax is trained as a patrol dog, meaning he’s going to go after the bad guys,” she said. “So, inherently, that’s going to potentially put him in danger.” She added that if she’s wearing a ballistics vest, Jax should too.

But when Pearson found out it would cost $3,900, she had to reconsider the gift.

“The funny part of the story was I thought it was going to be kind of around maybe the high hundreds … When she told me the full cost of it, I thought maybe I can’t swing that,” Pearson said.

She did “swing” it, though, with the help of her friends and family who pitched in to raise the full amount. Some of them donated as much as $500, which Pearson said was amazing to see.

As a way to say thank you, Scarborough will present the vest to Jax in honor of Pearson’s father. Jim Pearson raised his family, worked a Christmas tree farm, and served as a reserve police officer in Scarborough. He also worked as a teacher in Gorham. His life was tragically taken in December 2019.

With tears in her eyes, Pearson said, “When they told me they were going to do this in honor of him, it definitely touched my heart.”

“Having lost Jim in the way that we did, I feel like we owe it to him to honor him in a way to continue his legacy as a community member,” said Stankevitz. “I think sizing [Jax] up is the perfect way to do it.”

Jax’s custom vest will take a few weeks to be manufactured and shipped to the police station, but when it’s ready, the department will host a public ceremony for Jax and Jim.

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