Former Waite Park Police Dog Running With New Pack [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD -- There's a familiar face now patrolling the streets of St. Cloud.

Former Waite Park police dog Parker, is now a member of the St. Cloud Police Department.

Waite Park Police Chief Dave Bentrud says Parker's old handler made a career change and with no other handlers trained he didn't feel it was smart to have Parker sit idle.

I was not too excited for putting Parker on the shelf for months. Parker was really was offline for only a few weeks and it just worked out well for us in Waite Park as well as St. Cloud.

Parker and his new handler, Brian Cameron, have completed a 12 week training course and are just now on patrol together.

Cameron has been a handler for about five years. He says the addition of Parker was timely as his old dog Ramo was set for retirement.

My last dog was starting to have arthritis in his back and I was considering retiring him as I wasn't sure how long I could keep him going. Then I got a great opportunity, I got a call from our chief asking if I would be willing to retire him to take on a new dog.

Cameron says it's been an adjustment from Ramo to Parker but the two are starting to become a great pair.

As for the Waite Park department, Bentrud says he believes they will get another police dog in the future, but right now he is focused on rebuilding his staff.