K-9 Unit

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit is a group of deputies specially trained in handling dogs for locating criminal suspects, narcotics, explosives or missing people. The K-9 Unit currently consists of five deputies and six dogs, including two German Shepherds, one Blood Hound and three Belgian Malomios. k-9pix1.jpg (22207 bytes)

Each K-9 deputy is required to have a minimum of 400 hours training in the handling of these special animals. In addition, ongoing training is conducted in narcotics, explosives and search and rescue. The dogs live with their handlers, and this helps form a closer working relationship, enabling the deputies to be familiar with every aspect of the dogs’ behavior. The dogs ride along with the deputies in their normal patrol zone, and they may be requested to assist deputies as well as other agencies when K-9 support is requestd.

k-9pix2.jpg (19848 bytes) During the year 2002, the K-9 Unit responded to 220 missions, with 53 tracking cases, 5 building searches, 133 narcotics searches and 17 bomb searches. This unit recognizes the importance of community involvement and does numerous public demonstrations each year to educate the public on their role in law enforcement, the devastation of drug abuse and child safety issues.

SMELL - This is a dog’s primary sense, and it is much stronger than a human’s. Where humans have 5-10 million olfactory cells, a K-9 has 220 million!

SIGHT - K-9’s see much better at night than humans, giving them a greater ability to sense movement. Their color vision is limited.

SPEED - A working K-9 can run up to 30 mph.

AGILITY - K-9’s can jump very high and get into places humans cannot safely enter.