Kids and canines both benefitted this week as Wal-Mart made another donation of $3,000 to the Saratoga Springs Police Department.

"Wal-Mart made an additional $3,000 donation to the police department, $2,000 of which will go toward the canine program and $1,000 for Shop with a Cop which is a program for kids at Christmas time," said Saratoga Springs Police Chief Gary Hicken.

Hicken said that to date, the department had collected $21,000 for the canine program. This money goes toward outfitting a vehicle for a canine officer as well as buying a dog and all the equipment that goes with them.

"So between Wal-Mart, Smith's, Milk Bone and the citizens, we got $21,000 and we are now painting the truck and putting on the light bar. In the next 30 days or so we will have a dog.

"There are three major things that canines are really useful for," Hicken said. "One is to smell out drugs at car stops or anywhere else.

"Secondly, and just as important, any time you have a silent alarm or you have a building that's open or a house that is open, you can put a dog in there and check it out about 10 times faster than an officer can do it, and much more safely," Hicken said.

"Lastly, the dog is also used in community programs, in schools, things like that," Hicken said.

"A dog is a really good partner. They have become a very effective part of police work," he said. "Every department I know that has the resources has a canine."

Hicken explained that the Kids and Cops program -- formerly known as Shop with a Cop -- will take 10 underprivileged children from Saratoga Springs and help them out with their holiday season.

"In the last two years we have done it with Utah County. This year we wanted to do it on our own in our community," he said. "Each child will get $100 to spend at Wal-Mart and the officers will take them out shopping."

Nathan Maerk, Saratoga Springs Wal-Mart store manager, said, "We try to do everything we can to stay connected to and meet the needs of the community. Shop with a Cop is done all around. It is normally done on more of a county basis, but we wanted to do something just for Saratoga Springs."

The children and officers will go shopping together the morning of Saturday, Dec. 5.

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