Law Enforcement Canine Handlers and Trainers from across the United State came together for the common interest of creating practical standards for Law Enforcement Canine Teams and furthering the training of Canine Teams with the common goal of providing the best possible Law Enforcement Canine service to their communities.  The Eastern Police Canine Association, Inc., (EPCA) founding members were Gary Harvey from Virginia, David Smith and Duane Shaffer from New York, Joe Collins from New Hampshire and John Reynolds from Alabama in 1994 as a private non-profit independent association.  John and Joe eventually moved on to other endeavors and were replaced by John Vanek from New York filling out the Board of Directors.  Later Anthony Patricola and Vanja Mikelic from New York and Mike Page from Pennsylvania were nominated and accepted to the Board of Directors. 

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6/13/22 Officers

President Duane Shaffer

Vice President Anthony Patricola

Treasure Edward McCulskey

Secretary John "Larry" Vanek

 

The EPCA is funded by membership fees and private donations. These funds are used to purchase Canines and training equipment.  At host seminars, EPCA Licensed Trainers conduct training in various deployment profiles as well as testing of Canine Teams to include but are not limited to Protection, Tracking and Trailing, Search and Rescue, Scent Detection for Accelerants, Evidence Recovery, Explosives, Human Remains, and Narcotics.  The EPCA has progressive degrees of certifications testing available and encourage its members to continue to advance.  EPCA is ever evolving to ensure that our members are accountable to be giving their best back to their communities.

 

Membership is open to all police officers, police K-9 Unit members, trainers, or any duly-authorized and sponsored persons regardless of location. The membership fee is $50.00 per year per member which includes testing for certification no same seminar retesting if failed. Membership application forms are available in the membership section of this site.