WANTED: Speed, agility, great sense of smell, a strong bite, and ability to be nice when needed. Not your average qualifications for Law Enforcement Officer, but perfect for your typical K-9 unit.The Jefferson County K9 Unit consists of 4 K9 handlers, 1 sergeant and 1 captain.
The K-9 unit is the most actively utilized specialty unit within the Sheriff’s Office. Besides regular patrol duties, these teams are utilized by our own agency, as well as many other agencies for drug investigations, evidence searches, tracking of suspects or missing persons, building searches and to prevent escape.
We also do many public demonstrations for schools, church groups and community organizations. These demonstrations allow us to enhance community relations by explaining the workings of the unit, the benefit to the Sheriff’s Office and the benefits to the citizens of this county.
The K-9 teams go through extensive training every year and are all certified through the North American Police Work Dog Association. The teams must show a proficiency in obedience, article search, area search, building search, tracking, narcotic detection and aggression control. The teams also train on their own as a unit at least twice a month and attend other training sessions throughout the year.
Our K-9 unit began with a dog named Redman. He was assigned to our drug task force and assisted in drug investigations. In 1997, we added Jahn, our first patrol K-9. Jahn’s addition to our unit now added all the capabilities noted above such as tracking and building searches. As the need has arisen throughout the years, we have added K-9s and now have 4 fully trained dual duty patrol K-9s.
The Jefferson County K-9 unit looks forward to many years of productive and dedicated years of service within our communities. It is times like these that we have faced as a nation that make you proud to be part of such community involvement and positive spirit towards law enforcement. Thank you for visiting our web page.
Past Handlers & Their Dogs
End of Watch
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