Stellar Ella - One of New Milford's Most Vital & Valued Cops

Recently I asked New Milford Mayor Pete Bass to help me with something that was long overdue, get me connected with the New Milford Police Department.

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At I95, we are always writing about our local police departments and their activities, but I find it to be so impersonal and wanted to change that. Mayor Bass said he was happy to make these connections and put me in touch with New Milford Chief of Police Spencer Cerruto. Chief Cerruto and I have yet to meet in person, but we hit it off via phone.

Not long into our text exchange, the Chief started telling me about what makes him most proud to be the leader of the New Milford Police Department, and Ella's name came up. Chief wrote "this is Ella, our newest member" along with the photo of a beautiful dog.

Ella is a tracking dog and a real police officer. This is a video of Ella doing her thing in a promotional video from last December.

That's just top-notch police work right there. Now, I could sit here and tell you how beautiful Ella is all day but I want to get to know more about her so I asked Chief Cerruto to give me more on her background, role and personality. This is the message I got from the NMPD:

"K-9 ELLA was born on 09-11-20 in Virginia and she is named after the City of Chicago Police OfficerElla Grace French who was killed in the line of duty on 08-07-21. Ella is certified in human tracking and is a member of the CT Police Work Dog Association and the National Police Bloodhound Association. She has trained with the Tri-State Police Bloodhound Group based in Westchester County. Ella's handler is Officer Mark Williams who has over 10 years experience with police K-9's.

Ella has the capability of tracking suspects and searching for missing persons. Ella is a very approachable and gentle bloodhound which makes her a great fit for community policing. Ella has been to schools, community events and is embraced by the community wherever she goes. She is one of 5 police bloodhounds in the state and will be traveling to Maryland in a few weeks to be a part of National Bloodhound AssociationTraining.

Ella has a friendly, approachable demeanor, which will make for excellent public relations and will be helpful at community policing events. Of course the Bloodhound has a nose that is second to none, has a natural drive to track and will not stop until they reach the end of their trail. Ella will be used as a search and rescue dog, to track missing persons, such as missing children, Alzheimer patients or people with Autism wh may have wandered. In addition she will track suspects who flee on foot. I am excited to introduce Ella to the community and confident that she will provide excellent service to our community."

New Milford Police

New Milford PD