Photo Courtesy of The City of Greenfield
By KENNEDY GRIFFIN
(Greenfield, MA) Retired Greenfield Police Comfort Dog, Officer Clarence, passed away Tuesday. He served as one of America’s first Police Comfort Dogs from the fall of 2013 until he retired in March 2022. His legacy, the Police Comfort K9 program has been adopted in emergency departments, courts, and federal agencies throughout the county.
After his skill of helping his handlers recover from PTSD was noticed, he was called in to help federal agents and emergency responders after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting and the Boston Marathon bombing. Acting Greenfield Police Chief William Gordon and Officer Laura Gordon, Clarence’s co-owners and handlers, met Bradford Cole after the Sandy Hook event and formed the national nonprofit K9 First Responders. Clarence was one of the first graduates and went on to help people in this region and across the country.
Officer Clarence was awarded NYC Animal Medical Center’s “Top Dog” award in 2013, became an ambassador for the Tails of Hope Foundation, and traveled to the World Trade Center to greet people at the 9/11 fundraising events. Recently, Officer Clarence met President Biden at the Nation’s Capital where he was comforting the President and families of fallen officers. Beyond comforting, Clarence appeared in multiple commercials, television shows, national news features and national events including Saturday Night Live, a Ford commercial, the Today Show, and many more.