Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Utah Department of Corrections disciplined K-9 Loki's handler with eight hours of unpaid leave.
- The handler was promoted despite the incident, as policy allows after a year.
- Department now equips 14 vehicles with heat alert systems and conducts daily checks.
DRAPER — After K-9 Loki died in a hot car in 2023, the Utah Department of Corrections disciplined its handler by ordering eight hours of unpaid leave and says it has new equipment to keep its working dogs cool and safe in hot weather.
The department provided those answers this week to questions the KSL Investigators and the public have been asking for almost two years.
In February, a KSL investigation revealed the vehicle Loki died in was the only department vehicle equipped with a heat alert system. When the inside temperature hits 87 degrees, the windows automatically roll down, and a siren sounds to alert the officer.
An investigation by the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office found the heat alert system was turned off on July 13, 2023, when Loki was left in the vehicle and the temperature hit the high 90s. The review found none of the officers were trained on how to use it.
But that's changed, said Mike Schoenfeld, who is now the department's deputy executive director.
"They have all been trained on the vehicle, and they have all been given the daily operational sheets that they do their daily checks with," Schoenfeld told the KSL Investigators on Friday.
Now, Schoenfeld said, the department has 14 vehicles with heat alert systems for each of their 14 K-9s, and it checks the system daily to make sure it's working.
As for Loki's handler, disciplinary records show he was given eight hours of unpaid leave in February for his dog's death. It took more than a year and a half for the department to discipline the officer in part because the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office conducted a criminal investigation that took more than a year. No charges were filed.
In March, the officer was promoted to sergeant after he tested toward the top compared to 80 other candidates who applied for similar positions, according to a corrections spokesperson.
The department says its policy prevents disciplinary action from getting in the way of a promotion if the incident occurred more than a year earlier.
The spokesperson told KSL the former handler dealt with the consequences of what he did, and the likelihood of the now-sergeant having a K-9 again is slim.
Schoenfeld agreed, telling KSL, "Certainly under this administration, that would not be very likely at all, if ever."
The department initially told KSL it planned on finalizing new K-9 policies once the internal investigation wrapped up. Schoenfeld said it's already operating under the new policies, but the changes will go through several more rounds of approval before reaching the executive director's desk.
The KSL Investigators reached out to 17 law enforcement agencies throughout Utah last winter, asking if they regularly document and test their heat alert systems. The Utah Department of Natural Resources and the Weber County Sheriff's Office said at that time they didn't do so but planned on changing that.
Three months later, our team followed up. Weber County didn't provide an update. DNR told us it now performs monthly checks.
That was good news to Schoenfeld.
"If we're doing something that makes sense," he said, "I think it's great that other units are implementing that."
