The Cheltenham Police Department’s K-9 Rusty recently received the United States Police Canine Association, Inc. 3rd Quarter Excellence Award in recognition of Outstanding Performance in the Detection and Prevention of a Crime.

According to the Department, the award comes from an incident in July, during which Rusty successfully tracked armed carjackers.

The suspects, who had fled on foot to evade capture, surrendered to police after Rusty came within a short distance of their location.

From the Department’s Facebook post:

In July 2023, K-9 Rusty was on patrol near the border with Abington. Abington Police received an alert regarding a vehicle that was carjacked by gunpoint in Philadelphia the prior day. Once the driver saw Police, he crashed the vehicle and attempted to flee along with two passengers. Police captured one passenger after a brief foot pursuit. The driver and the other passenger fled on foot, and this is when K-9 Rusty began tracking them. After a short time, the suspects who had concealed themselves under tables in the rear of a greenhouse on private property, verbally surrendered to police as K9 Rusty came within only a few feet of their location. The suspects were arrested and the following day, the gun used in the carjacking was found.

This shows great teamwork with neighboring departments and how valuable the K-9 teams are in police work! Congratulations K-9 Rusty!

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Photo: Cheltenham PD