In early September, the first Bradley W. Taylor Memorial K-9 Trials hosted more than 40 K-9 officers from across Utah, Idaho and Nevada in memory of fallen Sandy City K-9 officer, Bradley W. Taylor.

The event was hosted by the Bradley W. Taylor Memorial foundation which was started by Taylor’s wife, Marisa Taylor. Taylor hopes to encourage the use of K-9 officers and raise funds for K-9 training and equipment in her husband’s memory.

“I made the foundation to help Brad still reach [his] dream,” Taylor said. “Until you’re in the [K-9] world, you don’t realize just how important these dogs are, and then when you get there you realize how much work it is.”

In honor of Bradley W. Taylor

Marisa and Bradley Taylor were raising their family in Davis County when tragedy hit.

Taylor’s tragic death occurred last year on Sept. 3 when he was only 29 years old. His death came suddenly, just weeks after being diagnosed with stage four melanoma and shortly after the birth of his youngest daughter.

“There is a little bit of a calm to know that he died loving his life – he loved his family, he loved his job,” Marisa Taylor said. “He had found a purpose and not everyone gets to say that.”

Marisa said she watched Bradley Taylor find his passion as a K-9 officer after he had tried many different career paths. 

“When he found the police, there was a change in him in a good way,” Marisa said. “There he found his passion. He loved it. He loved that he had a purpose to help people, that he went to work every day and did something every moment he was there.”

It was in Sandy where he started training his Police Service Dog, Trig.

“He trained that dog day and night,” Marisa said. “That dog was so spoiled – he got ice cream and he would have snow cones with us as a family. He did everything.”

Officer Bradley Taylor feeds his PSD Trig a snowcone. (Courtesy of Bradley W. Taylor Memorial)

After her husband’s death, Marisa started the Braley W. Taylor Memorial to do three things: to support her husband’s dream, support K-9 units and help their young daughters know a different side of their dad.

“I will make sure my girls get to be involved in that world, and so they get to know that side of dad in a way that I can’t just tell them about,” Marisa said. “This way my girls get to know a different side of dad.”

She hopes to have her girls continue to attend the K-9 trials and be a part of that “family” of K-9 officers.

“I come to these trials, and they all know Brad,” Marisa said.

The annual K-9 trials hosted by the memorial foundation, she said, is an event to not only push police officers and their dogs to train, but to offer outreach and support for underfunded departments.

“[Taylor] strongly believed that K-9 officers help to avoid deadly conflict and bring home officers and citizens alike,” reads the memorial’s website. 

Its mission is “to help continue that legacy in his honor by providing essential funding for K-9 units” and “ensure these courageous canines are well-equipped to serve and defend.”

The first annual Bradley W. Taylor K-9 Trials

Participants for the K-9 trials came from institutions in Idaho, Utah and Nevada, including West Jordan and Sandy Police Departments, as well as Utah Transit Authority, who took home the prize for Explosives Top Agency per an Instagram post.

Sergeant Mike Jones from the West Jordan Police Department, leader of the national award-winning K-9 department, said all five K-9 trainers participated in the event to support the cause. He interacted with Bradley Taylor on several occasions when departments came from all across the valley to train in West Jordan. 

Jones said after Bradley Taylor died, Marisa Taylor “wanted to make sure agencies that didn’t have the funding or support” would have “an option to reach out and have some money to get those things.”

“It’s expensive to run a good canine program, we are truly appreciative of being able to run this program,” Jones said of the West Jordan Police Department’s K-9 program. “Our dogs are getting called all over the place to help other agencies that just don’t have the support that we do.”

West Jordan Police Department won the title of Top Patrol Agency at the competition, with 15 other awards among the five officers who competed. (Photo courtesy Mike Jones)

West Jordan is one of the few agencies in the state, Jones said, that allow their handlers to spend at least two hours a day training with their PSDs. For other departments, most training is done on a police officer’s own time.

Jones’ PSD Vranik won first-place prizes in the obedience and agility categories and fourth place in the patrol area search and Tuff Dog competitions. The WJPD as a whole won the Top Patrol Agency Award of the whole event. 

Taylorsville Police Department was awarded a new PSD who was trained by Next Level Canine during the event.

In total, the event raised more than $12,000 which will be used in part to host a winter training held by the foundation and the rest will be awarded to different police departments based on needs, Marisa Taylor said.

Police departments can fill out a form to apply for aid from the memorial on the memorial’s website at www.bwtk9memorial.com.