Benefits to the Community

• Increased Officer Safety: The deployment of a K9 team can make an officer’s job less dangerous. Night-time foot patrols by K9 teams are powerful, highly visible deterrents to burglars, robbers, and drug dealers. Police dogs are also valuable aids to search dark or dangerous locations.

• Drug Interdiction: A police dog has more than five times as many olfactory sensory cells as a human. K9 teams are excellent tools to locate and recover illegal drugs from cars, lockers, storage units, and more.

• Tracking: A police dog and handler can provide valuable and timely tracking services to locate missing/endangered persons, hidden evidence, and fleeing suspects.

• Efficiency: A trained K9 team can clear a building of suspects in less than one-quarter of the time it would take an officer.

• Public Relations: K9 teams provide frequent appearances and demonstrations at schools, special events, and community functions. They strengthen relations between police and community members.

• Asset Forfeiture: Police departments are allowed to keep a percentage of confiscated cash or property that constitute the fruit of criminal conduct, in certain circumstances. 

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