LEGENDs | June 2016 | Idaho State Journal | 9
a crawlspace and alerted to where he was at,” Lacey said. “The guy gave up, I was able to call Bart back to me, and the guy surrendered peacefully. Nobody got hurt, and Bart made it a quick and painless arrest.” Lacey left his general manager position at Outer Limits Fun Zone to join the Pocatello Police force six years ago and has been a K-9 handler for more than a year. Though his employment changed, his passion for engaging and protecting our youth has never faltered. “When things go wrong with kids, it really irks me,” he said. “When kids are being abused or neglected or in a bad situation, I make it my goal to try to help them the best I can.” An Idaho State University alumnus who earned a degree in public relations, Lacey is one of six former Bengal football players on the force. He’s excited to tap into all of Bart’s potential and aspires to one day change legislation that currently states Idaho K-9s are property and do not receive the same protections as those in other states. “I can’t use lethal force to protect my dog,” he said. “Now if somebody shot at my dog, and he’s standing right next to me, that’s a bit different.” Growing up in California, Lacey said negative interactions shaped his early opinions of law enforcement as being robotic or racist but added that he brought on a good majority of those situ-
“When kids are being abused or neglected or in a bad situation, I make it my goal to try to help them the best I can.” ations by himself. Additionally, living the bigger city life early on provided him with the street smarts necessary for keeping drugs and other crimes off the streets of Pocatello. “I tell people all the time I wished they could be a police officer for a month,” he said. “Just to experience and see what we deal with all the time.” Unlike detectives or those involved in the court process, patrol officers don’t always have the liberty of following a case from open to close. Their moments of reflection or satisfaction are short-lived as the next call comes firing off the radio. However, one specific case sticks out to Lacey — one he felt fortunate to see resolved, at least temporarily. “I had to take kids out of
a house that you could smell the trash from the sidewalk,” he said. “They were sleeping on cat urine-infested pillows, needles and drugs were everywhere, and three kids were in there.” One kid’s bed was two couch cushions shoved together and was saturated in dog feces. “To only make that scenario worse, we went up to the parent’s room and it was spotless,” he said. “There was a flat-screen TV and a security system, but you could literally smell the refrigerator from the end of the driveway. I don’t think I’ve ever been as mad or disheartened in my life.” Lacey said afterward he didn’t feel gratified because although he may have saved them for a week, he doesn’t know what’s going to happen to those kids in the end.