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 Title: Lieutenant of
Administration
After serving his country honorably for 3 years as an MP in the U.S. Army,
Richard Pastucka began his career in law enforcement. He graduated as a
municipal officer from the rigorous course of study at the Pennsylvania State
Police Academy in 1980, achieving the highest academic honors in his
class. He started as a police officer with another
local department and left there to begin serving the citizens of
Susquehanna Township in 1988.
In his career, he has served in many capacities while working his way up
the ranks. As with all police officers here, he started as a patrol
officer, before being promoted to Sergeant in 1996, and Lieutenant in
2003. He is an original member of the Dauphin County
Crisis Response Team (SWAT), and served as an entry team leader.
Currently, he is in charge of the Criminal Investigation Division, and handles
all administrative matters related to the operation of the police
department.
Lt Pastucka is probably most best known for his expertise in the field of K-9
handling. He was a K-9 officer for Susquehanna Township for 15 years,
including acting as the K-9 unit supervisor. Aside from his police K-9
duties, he is a world renowned handler, competing in 1993 and 1995 as one of only 6 U.S. handlers on the world team. These competitions have
taken him to places like Belgium and Hungary for competitions against some of
the best K-9 trainers in the world. It is for this reason that our
department's K-9 unit is considered one of the finest in this state.
Lt Pastucka is also the original coordinator of our department's
accreditation by the PA Chief's of Police. This endeavor alone kept him
busy day in/day out for two years, meeting the stringent demands of the
accreditation assessors. He is also the coordinator of our Immediate Action/Rapid
Deployment Instruction, and teaches this to other departments. He has
served on the Municipal Police Officer's Education and Training Commission's
officer safety course development committee. This committee developed a
training course that was then taught to all police officers in this state.
Lt Pastucka has attended numerous tactical and leadership courses throughout
his career.
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