Val Green's first contact with the local police when he moved back to Layton 15 years ago was a traffic ticket from then patrol officer Steve Brown.
It was the start of a beautiful friendship.
"He's never let me forget it," said Brown, who is now a sergeant.
On Thursday the police department and the Layton City Council honored Green for that friendship, which led most recently to the purchase and donation of two bullet-proof vests for the four-legged K-9 officers Rex and Fabian.
"Police officers wear the Kevlar vests and my wife, Edith, and I thought it would be nice to make sure their partners were protected as well," said Green, a Layton native who retired here after working for several years in Oregon as an executive for Coca-Cola.
The $1,100 vests, which shield the dogs from shoulder to tail, are not equipment that the department could afford to purchase, Brown said.
"Due to the expense, a lot of departments don't have them," he said. "It's unusual for a citizen to step forward and make a donation to the department."
But it's not unusual for Green to make generous contributions to the city. He's previously donated to the parks and recreation department, and a park area near the city office was named in honor of his parents.
"I just wanted to give something back," said Green. "I talked about this with the previous police chief 15 or 18 months ago and then last fall, I made my promise to the police department,"
Green isn't the only one in Utah looking to help protect furry crime-fighters. Last fall, the death of a Beaver County K-9 during an altercation between sheriff's deputies and a member of a religious sect sparked several vest fundraising campaigns.
In February, elementary school student Elisabeth Seipels placed collection cans in elementary schools in hopes of raising $5,000 to outfit five Brigham City Police Department dogs. And in Salt Lake County, Melva and Jennifer Kravitz, owners of the Little Dog Resort and Salon, have generated enough funds to purchase vest for five dogs and are within $100 of purchasing a sixth.
Officers Rex and Fabian and their respective handlers, Alex Ghiz and Lloyd Davis, have been with the Layton department for about a year and half, Brown said. The dogs are used in a variety of ways, sniffing out drugs or hiding suspects, but are not always thought of as full-fledged "officers" by the community.
"There are a lot of situations where the dogs go in so that we can protect the lives of our officers," said Brown, who helped Green research and then order the vests. "The dogs go in without protection. We risk their lives, and now this will give us the ability to offer them some protection."