OWEGO, N.Y. (WETM) – Owego Village Offices will lower their flags to half-staff in memory of the police department’s 14-year-old K9 who died earlier this week.

The Owego Police Department announced that K9 Tarah died on August 15, 2022 after almost 15 years of working with various law enforcement agencies.

Tarah was born in November 2007 in Alberta, Canada. The Southern Tier Police Canine Association later bought her and Officer J.L Vanek trained her.

Owego Police said that between her time with the Endicott Police Department from 2008-2020 and the Owego Police Department 2020-2022, Tarah was responsible for almost 900 arrests.

Tarah received several certifications from statewide and national working dog associations

“Tarah was an ambassador to the public and loved children,” the announcement said. “Her deployment profile was very specialized as a passive narcotics detection dog specializing in scanning people, and doing urban hard surface tracking.”