Chandler police Sgt. Tom Lovejoy will go on trial Jan. 10 for reckless animal abuse after he left his K-9 partner in a hot patrol car for more than 12 hours.

Lovejoy has pleaded not guilty.

Since his dog's death, Lovejoy has been working on a new system to prevent future heat deaths.

Right now, K-9 police vehicles have a hot pod, a heat-sensor alarm that goes off if the vehicle gets too hot.

The problem is when the vehicle is off, the system is off.

That's how Lovejoy's dog, Bandit, died.

The police dog stands on a weighted mat connected to the engine. When an officer turns off his vehicle, the air conditioning keeps running until the dog steps off the special mat.

Lovejoy says this simple system could have saved Bandit's life.

"I want to make sure something like this never happens again, and if we can do that with a piece of equipment, then that needs to be done," Lovejoy said.

Lovejoy started building the system just weeks after Bandit died. It's still a prototype, but his team hopes to have it installed in K-9 cars soon.

"He didn't do it to save face," Carolynn Lovejoy said. "He totally did it so this doesn't happen again."

Lovejoy can no longer work with the K-9 unit but says at least he can try to save another dog life.

"Through all this, I accept my responsibility and I accept my discipline," Lovejoy said.

Lovejoy is also hoping to help build a dog-safety system that's motion-censored.

His ultimate goal is to help develop a system that can be used for both dogs and kids.