All roads lead home

By Neal Hogden

The Tribune-Phonograph Michael and Eric English grew up together. They played sports together. They went to college together. They then became police officers together. Now, the 28-year-old twins are K9 officers in central Wisconsin, and got to this point, together.

The English brothers went through school in the Abbotsford School District, excelling in sports along the way. The duo then went to college at Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa where they played on the basketball team together. They said they were initially drawn to Waldorf University because of scholarships but the real reason they went was because they could go together.

“I was pretty much the catch to get [Eric] to go,” Michael said. “They were recruiting Eric and they knew if they got me, they would get him. So we ended up going and being roommates throughout college.”

Although Michael said he enjoyed being able to participate in sports at the collegiate level, he said the sport began to cause him issues when he hurt his ankle in college.

“I was to the point where I was taping my ankle and wearing a brace on it,” Michael said. “We don’t play basketball at all anymore. You just can’t be hurt in our line of work.”

After graduating from Waldorf University in 2018, Michael and Eric went directly into the police academy and graduated in December of 2018.

Michael and K9 Arthur

Michael said he had always wanted to have a career in law enforcement and said his love for being a police officer began in high school.

“I knew as a junior in high school that I was going to go into law enforcement. I started doing ride-alongs with Marty Schwantes when I was in high school or just after high school,” Michael said. “At that time, he was a K9 handler. It’s always been a passion of mine.”

Michael said although he was a collegiate athlete, he thought about leaving college early to enter the state patrol program.

“Thankfully, it didn’t happen,” he said. “They lost my questionnaire so I never got an interview. I ended up finishing my last two years and ended up at Clark County.”

In January of 2019, Michael got a job as a deputy with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office. He said initially, there were calls that he would be responding to that would hang

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SYMMETRY THROUGHOUT - Eric English, left, poses with K9 Hemi of the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department while Michael English, right, poses with K9 Arthur of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.

STAFF PHOTO/NEAL HOGDEN English brothers

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with him.

“It took some time, but it was nothing that would force me out of law enforcement,” he said. “I have a brother in law enforcement. You get close with your shift mates. Not to sound too cliche, but they turn into brothers. You spend more time with them than you do your own family sometimes. I think that helped a lot to get through those struggles.”

Michael said that once he had his mind made up that he wanted a career in law enforcement, one of the first goals he set for himself was to be a K9 handler.

“Being a K9 handler has always been a career goal of mine,” Michael said. “The thing is, to get this type of promotion in any other department is unheard of. I got my dog my second year in law enforcement.”

Although becoming a K9 handler happened sooner than expected, Michael welcomed K9 Arthur, a German Shorthaired Pointer, into his life and home and quickly became accustomed to his new lifestyle.

“I’m not the kind of guy that can sit inside,” he said. “I’d go nuts. I like being out and about. Having my office in a car is perfect for me.”

He said the K9 position is normally one that is more sought after and one that you might have to wait 10 years before you get the position. Michael said he was one of three or so applicants within the Clark County Sheriff’s Office but things fell the right way and he was chosen to take on the task as a young officer.

Now, K9 Arthur and Michael have been patrolling the highways and streets of Clark County for close to five years. He said he is proud of all that he and Arthur have accomplished thus far and hopes there are many more good years to come.

Michael said his role as a K9 officer has given him added responsibility of responding to traffic stops, school sniffs, prison sniffs or anything else drug-related that officers might require of he and Arthur. However, he said he still is assigned to a section of Clark County and if a call comes in from his section, he needs to respond to those as well.

“It’s just a little bit of added responsibility when running a dog,” Michael said.

Michael said over the course of the last five years, he has come to love Arthur as a part of the family and said he knows there might be a day where he is without him, but he hopes that day is far in the distance.

“I would be devastated if something happened to Arthur,” Michael said. “Arthur truly is the one person, or animal, that I spend more time with than anyone else. You get issued a dog and it’s a 365-day a year thing you have to take care of. They’re more work than the average house pet because you’re with them 24/7.”

Michael said he hopes the best is yet to come for he and his partner, but knows Arthur’s retirement isn’t too far off.

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LOOKING UP TO DAD - Archer English, 1, says goodbye to his dad, Michael, and Arthur as they head off for a shift.

SUBMITTED PHOTO English brothers

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“Arthur is only five years old. Without any medical issues, I’m hoping to at least get him to nine years old. So, four more years.”

He said he hopes Arthur can live out his days in comfort but said the wear and tear of being a police K9 can sometimes affect their later years.

“Working dogs, when they retire, they generally don’t make it very long,” Michael said. “I want Arthur to have some sort of retirement where he can just be a dog.”

Today, Michael and Arthur live in Medford with Michael’s wife, Emily [Nehls], also an Abbotsford graduate, and their oneyear- old son, Archer.

Eric and K9 Hemi Eric’s path towards law enforcement appears to be about as straight forward as any, but he said he certainly had his doubts along the way about whether or not he wanted to enter the law enforcement field, despite his interest in criminal justice from an early age.

“I originally went to college as a communications major,” Eric said. “I wanted to be in radio broadcasting. I didn’t end up liking the classes that went along with that major. There was a drawing class that had nothing to do with what I wanted to do. So I switched it up.”

Eric said his idol was Milwaukee Brewers’ radio announcer Bob Uecker and said initially, he thought he could be like his idol. However, after switching gears in college, he too thought he wouldn’t do well behind a desk, or in this case, a microphone, and needed to be more active during his workday.

“We both did the whole factory job thing and the outdoor construction thing, and it just wasn’t for us,” Michael said.

Eric said he came back to his hometown of Abbotsford to perform an internship with the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department in 2018 and that experience was one that “shifted his perspective on law enforcement,” he told the Tribune-Phonograph in 2020.

He said as he rode along with other officers, he quickly realized this was something he could do as a career. Eric’s first job in law enforcement was with the Clark County Sheriff’s Department, who hired him as a reserve officer in early 2019. He said he was a part-timer working full-time hours, doing everything from patrol duty and ATV patrols in the parks to prisoner transports and court security.

After starting with the CAPD in 2020, Eric found the situation to be the perfect one for him, saying it allowed him to do something he loved: help others.

“I like helping people,” he said. “I mean, this job certainly isn’t all about arresting people.”

Another plus the brothers noted was the variety of calls they receive during shifts which makes for more interesting work days.

“There’s always something to do in law enforcement, whether its rain or shine,” Michael said. “Running a dog, you pretty much make your day. You can either do as much or as little as you want. We’re both still call guys, but we can add to our case load as we want.”

“It’s different every shift,” Eric said. “You might have 12 calls one shift and you might have none the next.”

The duo said they both prefer to be busy as shifts tend to fly by during busy days but they said they enjoy the flexibility being an officer can provide. Eric said an important part of being a police officer is learning from situations and your mistakes.

“I always tell the new people, if you don’t go out and do things, you’re not going to learn anything,” he said. “The more that you do, the more you’re going to learn and the more fun you’ll have.”

Eric worked at the CAPD for four years before a K9 handler position came up. K9 Dodge, who was handled by now CAPD Lieutenant James Wagner, retired in February of 2024. After being chosen for the job, Eric was united with Hemi and the duo attended Jessifinay K9 Services in Iron Ridge for their training. Hemi was not only trained to find various types of illegal drugs, but also is one of the only bite dogs in the area. Hemi has been trained to take down fleeing suspects upon his handler’s request.

Eric said starting out as a K9 handler wasn’t as tough for him as he had been a part of the CAPD for four years and had worked with Wagner and K9 Dodge quite a bit during those four years.

“I was able to work with dogs prior to getting my own,” Eric said. “It’s obviously different when you’re behind the leash.”

Eric said he was already doing some of the work he was doing now in searching for illegal substances, but adding K9 Hemi was just another tool for him to use when searching for illegal drugs.

Although Eric has only spent two months with Hemi, he said he has grown attached to him and views him as both a pet and coworker.

“I’ve noticed when I take him around other people, he’s not looking at the other people, he’s looking at me,” Eric said. “He doesn’t really care about anyone else and knows I’m his boss.”

“I try to remember that he’s an employee for the CAPD and not a house pet. I try to compartmentalize that a little bit. I don’t treat him as a house dog. I try to make sure he knows we’re here to work and go do things. I let him outside and have fun on his days off but at the end of the day, he’s a tool that we have.”

Eric and Hemi live in Colby with Eric’s girlfriend, Callie Weber.

Settling into place

Today, the English brothers help keep drugs and criminals at bay in central Wisconsin. Prior to Eric receiving K9 Hemi, the two brothers would work the night shift together and often times, call each other for mutual aid if needed.

“It was definitely a blessing in disguise,” Michael said of the fact that both he and Eric passed up alternative options to return to central Wisconsin. “We have a lot of fun together and work pretty well together.”

“We both like finding dope,” Eric said jokingly.

The two said they always wanted to end up back in central Wisconsin but never truly saw it being a reality until it actually happened. Michael said he enjoys working with Clark County as he gets to patrol a bigger “sandbox” and responds to calls in a variety of places.

Eric said family was the one thing that drew him back home.

“I think being four hours away from home for four years – my plan was to be closer to family,” Eric said. “You miss a lot of stuff when you’re that far away.”

Michael said during the brothers’ sophomore year at Waldorf, their other brother, Chris, had a baby and it was tough to be that far away during that time. He also said it wasn’t until he moved back that he started dating his now wife, Emily, who had been a grade below him in school.

“It was just another blessing in disguise,” he said. “I came back home and found my wife.”

Although they said it was nice to be home, they said the job still demands a lot from a time standpoint.

“With this job, you still miss stuff with the hours that we work and all the training that goes into it,” Eric said. “Especially with K9 stuff, there’s a lot of training that you have to do behind the scenes to make sure the dogs are ready to go.”

The duo train together with five other dogs and handlers in Wausau.

Throughout their time in law enforcement, they said they have seen their fair share of not so pleasant things, but that also serves as a reminder for why they do, what they do.

“You know you’re going to have to point your gun at someone, but you never mentally accept it until you do it the first time,” Michael said. “After that, it’s a matter of when, not if.”

On top of the calls that require a certain display of force, there are also plenty of times where the officers are called in to assist someone with a mental health crisis.

“We wear a ton of hats,” Michael said. “The mental health crisis is crazy,” Eric said. “That’s why we have so much training, so we know how to deal with this kind of stuff.”

Mike said the number of mental health calls he goes on has increased exponentially since he began in 2019.

Going forward, the guys said they are excited that they can provide safety and health-altering support to those in central Wisconsin. One piece of advice they gave folks entering the workforce who might want to be police officers was to find their niche in law enforcement.

“You’ve got case people, drug people, balanced people and then you have people who want to wear the badge just to wear the badge,” Michael said. “Eric and I just found our niche in the drug game. It’s about finding that drive that keeps you coming to work.”

During the summer months, you can see Michael and Eric working at area festivals including Dorchester Days and Colby Cheese Days as they said they like to pop in to ensure everything is going smoothly.