Sheriff’s Office Introduces Jail Drug Detection Dog
Sheriff’s Office Introduces Jail Drug Detection Dog
Posted
Jackie Gorski-jgorski@timesuniononline.com
Sheriff’s Office Introduces Jail Drug Detection DogKosciusko County Sheriff’s Office introduced its new jail drug detection dog Buck on Thursday.
Buck’s handler is deputy Caleb Snyder, who started with KCSO in 2014 and is a member of the Sheriff Emergency Response Team, a supervisor and a certified instructor in defense tactics and use of force, according to a news release from KCSO.
Snyder said Buck is a rescue dog from Cher Car Kennel LLC, St. Johns, Mich. The kennel breeds, trains and uses rescue dogs with the goal to repurpose them to be working dogs for law enforcement.
Sheriff Jim Smith said it’s an issue he campaigned off of and was passionate about. He said there’s been an influx of drugs in the county and sometimes they get into the jail. He said he doesn’t think having a drug detention drug will be the end to all drugs in the jail, though.
“It’s something we’ve never done before, and I feel it’s past due … I wanted to have this dog put in place by the end of the first quarter, and we achieved it,” Smith said.
“We didn’t want a bite dog. Everyone knows labs are just friendly dogs. We wanted that floppier, friendlier face, so when we’re out looking for people who are lost or need help and this is the dog that comes up to them, they’ll probably feel a little better about that,” Snyder said.
Smith said the department’s purchase of Buck was in partnership with donors Tom and Sheri Bradway, founders of A Quilt for Mother’s Tears. Their son, officer Rod Bradway, was killed in the line of duty Sept. 20, 2013.
Tom said he read an article about March’s Merit Board meeting where KCSO was working on bringing a drug-detecting dog to the Kosciusko County Jail. The Bradways reached out to Sgt. Travis Shively to help in the process. Tom said it helps in preserving Rod’s legacy because, as a police offer, Rod always loved dogs and they knew dogs were a big part of his life.
Buck, a 1-year-old yellow lab, was on his fourth day of training Thursday and had already detected on three different drugs during his narcotics detection and tracking training.
Smith said there are three existing K9s assigned to patrol at KCSO. Buck is the fourth and is the only one assigned to the jail.
