Sgt. Fuzz is a blur of activity as he runs around a room at the St. Paul Police Department, but the puppy calms down as he snuggles with an officer.

The pup, the department’s new comfort dog, approaches a man sitting in the lobby. The man pets him and as Sgt. Fuzz sniffs around, the man says the dog seems to be zeroing in on the place where he was recently shot.

“He’s smart,” said the man, who asked that his name not be used.

Kathryn Smith, who volunteers as a St. Paul police reserve officer, has been bringing her dog around the police department and to some community events for about a month.

Smith calls Sgt. Fuzz a comfort dog and said she’s training him to be certified as a therapy dog when he’s at least a year old. Therapy dogs are trained to provide affection and comfort to people, and they can help people in retirement homes, hospitals and stressful situations.

The idea for Sgt. Fuzz came to fruition after Police Chief Todd Axtell started bringing his own dog, Stella, to work on some Fridays. He noticed the silver Labrador lightened the mood in the office.

“Officers see horrific things and if they can take 30 seconds, a minute to look at one of nature’s wonderful gifts, just kind of rest their mind, I think that stress reliever is important in any professional, high-stress position,” said Senior Cmdr. John Lozoya, who heads the department’s community engagement unit.

Smith is also planning to bring Sgt. Fuzz to Safe Summer Nights barbecues, which are held weekly during the summer, and potentially have him available to interact with crime victims in the future.

The dog, a German shepherd mix, came into Smith’s life when he was about 3 days old.

A rescue group, Mending Spirits in Mankato, asked Smith whether she could help with him, his litter mates and their mother. Smith didn’t hesitate. She’s been training dogs for 11 years now as a side job.

The rescue group named the pup Tyson, but Smith realized she would have to change his moniker when she brought him to police headquarters when he was a month old.

“An officer was petting him and he goes, ‘Oh, don’t bite my ear!,'” Smith said. The officer was jokingly referring to the time professional boxer Mike Tyson bit off part of a competitor’s ear.

They came up with a couple of different names and then settled on Fuzz as a nod to an old slang term for officers. The name also fits because the dog’s fur is fuzzy, Lozoya said.

As Smith was making a bandanna for the dog, she put a St. Paul Police Reserve Officer patch on it and an officer suggested, “Let’s make him sergeant,” Smith said.

And they did, adding three chevrons, which denotes sergeant rank, to the bandanna.

“He overranks me, yes,” said Smith, who has been a reserve officer for two years.

Another officer proposed calling the dog Cmdr. Fuzz, but Smith jokes that the pup needs to be potty trained before he can be promoted that far.

Sgt. Fuzz, who has been featured on the police department’s social media accounts and in a TV news story, is already getting recognized. When they were heading to a recent community meeting, someone in a car rolled down the window and shouted, “Sgt. Fuzz!,” Smith said.

“There’s a bridge between us and the community and it brings us all together, and who couldn’t resist having a cute little puppy to pet,” Smith asked.

But the dog doesn’t realize he’s a bigshot. At home, he’s just part of the pack, Smith said.

At the police department, though, he relishes in the attention.

On Monday, as Smith brought Sgt. Fuzz around police headquarters for quick visits, Sgt. Zane Koeger picked up the pup and held him. When the dog is around, Koeger said, “Work stops. Love begins.”