Introducing our highly trained team of bite decoys. These skilled professionals work alongside our K9 partners, helping them to develop confidence and overcome obstacles. Without their expertise, our K9s would not be where they are today. As our decoy trainer puts it: "A good decoy can take a good dog and make them great, while a bad decoy can bring a good dog down to average."

Detective Russ Johnson - Russ started as a Police Officer in 2011 with the University of Nebraska PD, spending time on the City/County Narcotics Task Force, patrol and various Instructor roles. The last three years were as an explosives detection K9 handler. Russ then started as an officer with Longmont in January of 2020 and became a decoy in the summer of 2020. Currently assigned to detectives and still holding various instructor roles. He has three dogs at home to wrangle outside of training. And yes, he is still a Husker fan….

Paramedic Kyle Hoover started in the emergency services in 2009. Since moving to Colorado in 2016 from Illinois, Kyle has worked all along the front range as a paramedic. Kyle started with the department’s Co-Responder team in 2020 where he is currently a paramedic. Kyle has always had an interest in police work especially K9’s. Kyle started as a decoy for the K9 team in July of 2022. Last fall Kyle was fortunate enough to decoy for a national conference, ATK9, which the rest of the K9 team attended. Kyle hopes to become a police officer and to become a K9 handler himself.

Officer Josh Barry has been with Longmont PD since 2021 and joined the decoy team in 2022. He works on patrol, currently working the night shift. He first gained interest in what K9's did on the military side of things, mostly just hearing stories about what the dogs could do as he was never lucky enough to see them in action. He thoroughly enjoys watching the dogs work and gains a lot of fulfillment in being able to play a part in training them. Josh has two dogs of his own, a Belgian Malinois mix and a Border Collie who keep him busy. When he's not assisting with the K9's he enjoys a plethora of outdoor activities that Colorado has to offer.

Officer Matt Gadbois is the newest decoy to the Longmont Police K9 team and is excited to work and get more experience with the team. Matt transferred to Longmont from Steamboat Springs Police where he worked for 10 years. Matt has been with Longmont since 2021 and was just selected as a decoy.

Officer Rachel Hasting who has been a police officer for about 5 years. She started her career at Boulder PD and moved to Longmont PD 2.5 years ago. She has been interested in K9 since she started this career, so she decided to become a K9 decoy about 2 years ago, in order to immerse herself into the program.