By Sheila Stogsdill

news@joplinglobe.com

GROVE, Okla. — A trial date of Sept. 22, 2008, was recently set for two Grove Police Department canine officers who have filed a federal lawsuit alleging they have not received adequate compensation to care for the department’s dogs.

Ron Crawford, of Jay, and Tracy Bloss, of Grove, filed suit in the United States District Court for the Northern District in Tulsa in September.

The police officers filed suit because they allege they should be receiving additional money for taking care of the dogs at their homes, said Bruce Johnson, Grove’s city manager.

Mark Morris, interim police chief, declined to comment last week, citing pending litigation.

Crawford was assigned as a canine officer from March 2002 to September 2006 and is now a police officer, while Bloss was assigned to the dogs from September 2006 to present, the complaint states. Their jobs involved training, caring for and transporting the dogs.

The city has denied the officers’ allegations in court filings. Johnson said in addition to their salary, officers are paid an additional $1,500 per year to care for the dogs.

But according to the officers’ three-page complaint, the city of Grove “suffered and permitted the plaintiffs to work in excess of the overtime threshold in each seven-day work period to care for the department’s police dogs.”

The officers argue that the time they spend with the dogs constitutes hours at work under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

“Defendant has not compensated plaintiffs for any of the off-duty hours they spent caring for the dogs,” the lawsuit states.