As a Law Enforcement Officer - Garden Grove

The Mounted Enforcement Unit
(MEU) is comprised of officers who, in
addition to their regular assignments,
work as a mounted officer. Members
of the MEU spend countless hours
training their horses –both on and
off duty- to remain calm in a variety
of situations, which would trigger an
untrained horse’s natural flight
instinct when faced with a
crowd or other unusual
environment.
The Garden Grove MEU
is part of the Orange
County Regional
Mounted Enforcement
Unit, which is comprised
of mounted officers from
Garden Grove, Santa Ana,
Anaheim, and Buena Park
Police Departments, as well as the
Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
These agencies share resources to
staff a variety of events in the various
jurisdictions where each agency
provides police services. This allows
each agency to draw on a much larger
contingent of mounted officers for large crowd control episodes, when the need arises.
In 2010, the MEU provided a presence at several festivals in the city, the Summer Concert Series, and numerous National
Night Out locations throughout the city. Officers also worked deployments in other cities, the largest of which was the Major
League Baseball All-Star Game and related events at Anaheim Stadium in July that involved over 200,000 people.
The Garden Grove Police Department Canine Unit (K9) was one of
the first units formed in Orange County. Officer Rory Helms is teamed
up with K-9 Lazlo, a German Shepherd imported from the Czech
Republic. The Unit’s primary responsibilities are to handle in-progress
calls for service, and business and residential alarm calls. The canines
are often used to search and locate suspects who have fled the scene
of a crime, search for lost people, or to locate hidden narcotics or
evidence. Officer Helms and Lazlo were dispatched to 322 alarm calls
and conducted 300 searches during 2010.
When the safety of officers or citizens is in question, oftentimes the
canine is sent in to deescalate a threatening situation so officers can
take a dangerous suspect into custody. In 2010 Lazlo successfully
apprehended a suspect that had broken into a laundry room at a
mobile home park, and was hiding
inside when officers arrived. The
suspect refused to surrender even
after being warned that a K9 would
be deployed if he refused to comply.
Officers could see that the suspect
had pry tools, which can be used
as weapons, so Lazlo was sent in to
apprehend the suspect. The suspect
was swiftly and safely taken into
custody thanks to Officer Helms and
K9 Lazlo.
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