Friday, July 13, 2012

Honoring Monroe's K-9 Justice


We just finished a shadowbox to honor K-9 Justice of the Monroe Police Department.  This memorial is being presented to his handler; Officer Bradshaw. Justice was Bradshaw's first K-9.  They patrolled Monroe together for seven years before Justice retired. Justice passed away May 24, 2012; he was 14. 
We were given Justice's leach, toy, patches and a few photo files.  The layout and sizes were all left to us. We edited the photos to give Justice a dramatic look. The photos were printed to custom sizes by our printer. (Yes, we do custom printing too.)  To have Justice stand out we went with a more traditional shadowbox. Photos and items were matted using Artique 'Indigo' to match the Monroe Police Department colors. Justice's toy was sunken into the mat as the Connecticut patch was raised above the toy's rope.  We made a plate to show Justice's years of service (Yup, we do custom engraved plates also!).  All finished off with Larson-Juhl 'Reflection' in cherry frame. We were honored to be able to memorialize Justice and his service.

The following is an excerpt about Justice from story written for Patch by Carol Banner which ran on Aug. 1,2011:
On June 26, 2006, a vehicle was pulled over in Monroe for an obstructed windshield. The driver had a suspended license. Officer Dennis Bradshaw and his partner K-9 Justice were summoned. Within minutes Justice indicated drugs were inside the car.
The trunk was opened revealing a backpack filled with seven plastic bags containing more than a pound of marijuana. There were also items to cultivate marijuana, rolling papers, pipes and a scale, plus $2,283 in the glove compartment. 
That was only one of K-9 Justice’s feats. He served Monroe from 2003-2010. During those years he racked up over 280 narcotic arrests, 41 successful tracks and 18 apprehensions.