Junction City police add wellness K9 Hali to comfort community

Junction City police have added a new face to the department, and she is not there to chase suspects. Hali, a year-and-a-half-old mixed German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois donated by Working Dogs Oregon, has been paired with Officer Fanning and will work as a wellness dog meant to comfort people during crises and traumatic incidents.

The department said Hali has already trained with Working Dogs Oregon and has shown the discipline and loyalty needed for the job. Instead of bite work or tracking, her role is to help settle tense scenes, give victims and families a calmer presence after difficult calls, and offer support to police staff who may need a brief emotional reset after traumatic incidents.

That role fits a small department that works around the clock. Junction City police say their patrol team includes one police chief, one deputy chief, eight officers, two reserve officers and three chaplains, and that the department provides 24-hour service for emergency and non-emergency calls, traffic enforcement, community policing and municipal code abatement. With a staff that size, a wellness dog can be used across a wide range of calls and public-facing events, from school visits to neighborhood outreach.

Officials said residents should expect to see Hali on shift with Officer Fanning and other officers, and at community events around town. Her presence is designed to make police interactions feel less intimidating and more human, especially in moments when a child, witness or crime victim may need a comforting distraction more than a traditional law-enforcement response. In a city where officers often know the people they serve, that softer approach could matter as much as any enforcement tool.

Hali also joins a growing local pattern. The Lane County Sheriff’s Office has introduced its own comfort canine, Corporal Carlton, who helps staff decompress and works three days on and two days off. That dog was named for Deputy Carlton Smith, who died in the line of duty in 1965. Working Dogs Oregon, the nonprofit behind Hali’s donation, says it has trained more than 100 handlers, provided more than 70 K9 first-aid kits and does not charge agencies for the dogs it places. For Junction City, Hali is less a mascot than another way to show up when people need help most.