The Washoe County Sheriff's Office will swear in a special, new officer in May, as their K9 Unit grows from eight officers, to nine. This was only made possible with a generous contribution from Washoe County K9 Partners.
The nonprofit raised nearly $20,000, enough to purchase and train a new K9 Unit.
Patti Kelly, Secretary for the organization, says they constantly host fundraisers for the K9 unit. Kelly explains the importance, "We provide the training, the equipment and the medical they need to go out, do their job and keep our community safe."
Sergeant Phillip Jones with the Washoe County Sheriff's Office says these donations allow them to pick up where the county's budget drops off. Sgt. Jones adds, "We were able to get GPS trackers for our dogs that track all our dogs when they're out on missions, we have all ballistic vests for our dogs."
A vest alone runs about $2,600 and the total cost of a new K9 is around $25,000. That includes the K9's initial training at an Indiana kennel and 'Nevada Post Standards' Training, once he arrives.
The new K9 will initially be used as a single-use, narcotics sniffing officer. While other police departments like nearby Roseville, California have begun to phase out K9s that sniff marijuana since its legalization, that will not be the case in Washoe County.
Sgt. Jones explains, "It's not legal in hundreds of pounds that my unit may deal with. Our new dog will definitely be trained to sniff that. 1 of the 4 odors will be marijuana." He added that they are not after those who use the plant, legally, "We were always after the narcotics organizations or the traffickers."
However, there is something unique about the new furry officer. Sgt. Jones told us, he won't look like the current K9 officers, "I'll give you a little teaser; he's not going to have ears that go up, his ears are going to go down."
Sgt. Jones says the community will have to wait until K9 Partners' 2nd Annual 'Barks and Badges' Fundraiser to find out exactly what the new officer will look like. That will be held May 19th and is open to the public from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
For more information about that fundraiser, click here.
