Top dog's days of collaring crooks near end
FOR Cairns dog squad boss Mal McKaskill, his crime-fighting pooch Beau will be the last canine he trains after a career spanning more than 35 years.
Sgt McKaskill may be soon hanging up his leash, but reckons he won't retire from the police force just yet.
He says he has plenty of miles left in him but he's not as young as he used to be.
Sgt McKaskill and 40 other Far Northern officers were recognised for their service yesterday.
Sgt McKaskill, a father-of-four, has come a long way since joining the force in 1974 and was impressed with the dog squad ever since he first saw it in action.
"I'd never heard of the dog squad until we were taking the report of a stolen car and this van pulls up and this dog came out and off he goes," Sgt McKaskill said.
"The bloke we were after came back with the dog snapping away and the officer said, 'He's the bloke who stole the car' and off he went.
"I that it was so cool I ought to be allowed to do that."
And he's never looked back with Beau being his sixth and last dog.
"We'd get called for murders, rapes, break and enters if they are chasing a suspect - all sorts of things," Sgt McKaskill said.
Sgt McKaskill remembers one job when they were looking for an elderly Digger in his 70s or 80s.
"We had to search the aged care property and when we found him he was lying in a ditch. It was the dog who led us to him and he would have been dead," he said.
"And that was one of my best jobs, knowing we saved someone."
His wife, Bridgette McKaskill has stuck by the officer during his service.
"I'm lucky to have her," he said.
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Crime-fighting duo: Dog squad officer-in-charge Sgt Mal McKaskill with Beau, the last dog he will train. Picture: MARC McCORMACK
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