A Nebraska City police officer swore an oath to protect and serve — and last summer, that oath apparently didn't extend to a dog left outside in 99-degree heat until it died.

Ofc. Jacob Stenka, a former K9 handler for the department, was arrested this week after the Nebraska State Patrol investigated a neighbor's complaint about the dog's treatment on July 26. Because Stenka wears a badge, his own department couldn't investigate the case itself — it had to call in state troopers instead. That alone should tell us something about how seriously this needs to be handled.

Nebraska City Police Chief Ben Murry has said police K9s require, at minimum, shade, water, and shelter. If that standard exists for the department's working dogs, it should have applied here too, whether or not the dog in question was on duty. The department has also sought tens of thousands of dollars in public donations for its K9 program under Stenka's past leadership — donors and residents deserve confidence that animals connected to this department are treated with basic decency.

Officers are given trust and authority that ordinary citizens don't have. When that trust is broken, especially in a case involving the death of an animal, the response can't be quieter or slower than it would be for anyone else. Nebraska City residents deserve a full, transparent accounting of what happened — and assurance that accountability won't stop at an arrest.

Sign the petition to demand a full, transparent investigation and appropriate consequences for Ofc. Jacob Stenka — no badge should shield anyone from accountability for animal cruelty.