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Greensboro Town Council approved the immediate hiring of police K-9 Mosley at its April 17 meeting.
Sgt. Jeff Adams was brought on board the Greensboro Police Department this year, bringing with him his retired K-9, Mosley. The Greensboro Town Council has been chewing on whether to bring Mosley out of retirement and hire her as Greensboro’s only police dog in a department of just two officers. Greensboro Police Chief Lennox Trams and Sgt. Adams have been vocal proponents of Mosley joining their department, even including an $8,000 budget provision for her care, training, and supplies in the police department’s proposed budget during their budget workshop on April 3.
The question facing the Council at this particular meeting was whether to hire Mosley immediately to serve for the final months of FY25 or to continue stalling until the start of FY26 in July. The cost to hire her for the remainder of FY25 is $2,000, which Chief Trams confirmed is financially do-able for Greensboro PD at this time.
The Town Council had requested that Mosley get a clean bill of health from the vet before moving forward with the discussion to hire her, which she received prior to the budget workshop on April 4. Sgt. Adams has been open about Mosley’s past bout of cancer and the removal of one of her legs, but he has assured the Council and residents that her health is not a concern and she remains ready to work. Councilman Bob Harrison was wary at the April 17 meeting about the obligation of the town to pay for Mosley’s future medical bills, but the town attorney noted that Greensboro PD has the right to retire her if the cost of employing her becomes financially burdensome, after which time the town is responsible only for up to $10,000 in medical costs.
The logistics of hiring a police dog in such a small town raised concerns for some Council members and residents. Greensboro currently relies on assistance from the Caroline County Sheriff’s Department for police coverage due to its small police department. There are only two K-9s in use within Caroline County — one at the Sheriff’s Department and one at Denton PD. Chief Trams pointed out a recent incident during which a Maryland State Trooper who requested K-9 assistance for a situation in Marydel had to wait 45 minutes for a K-9 traveling from Easton PD.
The question of whether Greensboro has a responsibility to share the coveted resource of a K-9 with the greater Caroline County area was a point of concern for Councilman Pete Brelia. “I don’t want to hire a dog and have Jeff and his dog called all over the state and the county to do the duty of the dog at our expense,” he said. Councilman Joe Noon asked if Greensboro could institute a radius or other boundary to restrict where Mosley could be called, which Chief Trams answered affirmatively, offering solutions such as instituting a physical radius, timeframe, or other criteria that must be met for Mosley to be taken out of the Greensboro area.
At the request of Councilman Noon, Sgt. Adams spoke on the necessity of a police dog in Greensboro. “I’ve done quite a few traffic stops already. From my knowledge and expertise…there’s been numerous times where I could’ve called my dog or used my dog and possibly could have made arrests.” As far as Mosley’s reputation as a K-9 he said, “she does produce.”
Councilman Brelia clarified, “I’m not against the dog, I’m against the dog right now. The reason I’m against the dog right now is we have a two man police department, so we either have to pay officer Adams time and a half to go to training, or we have to let him off an hour early… in a two man department where they’re only scheduled twelve hour shifts, I don’t think it’s practical to intentionally schedule a guy who’s going to be away from town.” Mayor David Spencer then referenced Chief Trams’ previous offer to place restrictions on the use of the K-9 outside of Greensboro.
Mayor Spencer opened up the floor to public comments regarding the hiring of the K-9. Resident Chris Mason brought up a poll that was conducted via Facebook on a Greensboro-related page where 70% of the vote favored the hiring of a K-9. Others cited noticing a rise in drug activity in Greensboro and neighboring towns as a reason to employ the dog. Resident Kevin Bartz addressed Councilman Brelia’s point of view specifically, “I think you’re in the wrong train of thought here. When you were the Chief of Police we didn’t have near the population, we didn’t have near the street drugs that are out there today… It’s alright to call Denton, Easton, wherever but we can’t ask our town to go to them for three hours.”
Amanda Weaver, resident and former Main Street manager, sided with Councilman Brelia, pointing out that the Facebook poll only included “Yes” responses to Mosley’s hiring from 35 people. “I don’t see the need of having a dog,” she said, “I understand the people saying ‘why is Caroline County sharing with us but we don’t want to share with them’ well, we pay Caroline County.”
Weaver also questioned Mosley’s age and status as “retired.” Sgt. Adams clarified that Mosley was not retired due to age or inability to do her job, but so that when he left his previous post with Federalsburg PD Mosley could stay with him instead of going to a different handler.
Despite the back and forth, the Greensboro Town Council voted 3 to 1 to hire Mosley immediately. Councilman Noon made the motion to bring the issue to a vote, stating “We have a drug problem” and referencing the support of the majority of the public comments being in favor of hiring the K-9.
