The very first police dog squad in New York City (and all of America, for that matter) was assembled in 1907. It’s numbers were made up of Jim, Nogi, Lady, Donna, & Max — each, a one year old Belgian Sheepdog, and specifically a Laekenois.

How the dogs came to be in New York started with Police Commissioner Theodore Bingham, a commander who sent Inspector George R. Wakefield to Paris and Ghent, Belgium to look into getting the same kind of police dogs that had been getting so much notice in Europe since their introduction in Ghent in the late 1800s.  Wakefield was impressed!  The police dogs he saw in Ghent had been trained to trust only men in uniform, and distrust any man lying down or crouching (presumably, a posture taken by bad guys). He tested the dogs himself by wearing a Ghent patrol uniform and walked the streets to see how the dogs would react to anyone else.

According to the Hatching Cat, the total cost of the trip and acquisition was $364.84, and that included $50 for the dogs. The trip evidently raised eyebrows at the time: The controller of the City of New York, Herman A. Metz, said the trip was the cheapest of its kind on record, and even customs officials thought the dogs would cost far more.

Once they got to NY, the dogs got three months of special training that included fundamental commands (which included the all important ability to recognize men in uniforms as friends, and everyone else as a possible enemy).  The rest of their story is a wonderful read which you can follow here.