The Lexington County Sheriff’s Department (LCSD) has a successful K-9 Unit thanks much in part to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Foundation. The need for a fully functioning K-9 unit was first identified by the Sheriff’s Department back in 2006. Prior to that, the Department utilized police service dogs dating back to 1994, but back then, the assigned deputy owned the dog and took care of it at his own expense.
Realizing this placed a great burden on the deputy, the Department began to see what it would cost to bring that expense in house. That was when LCSD started the full-time K-9 unit, in 2006, with the help of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Foundation. Over the years, the Foundation has provided funding to get new dogs as well as send the assigned deputy to specialized dog-handler training.
The current K-9 unit is comprised of 6 dogs: 1 bomb dog (Dash) and 5 multi-purpose dogs (Ronin, Bono, Robin, Injas, and Arcos). These dogs aid the department by tracking, sniffing out drugs/gun powder/weapons/bombs, going on manhunts, helping find lost persons, and apprehending suspects that pose a threat to their handler. Each of these dogs has a deputy handler that takes special care of them. When asked to identify the biggest benefit of having dogs on the force, Sgt. Applegate, who is Ronin’s handler and is in charge of the K-9 Unit, said “(the dogs) prevent things from happening. People don’t run or fight as much when one of the dogs is present.”
To give you an idea of just how important these dogs are to the department, here are a few statistics from 20131 that are sure to impress when you consider there are only 8 dogs in the unit:
- 1,268 Self-Initiated Calls completed in which the handlers developed the calls themselves i.e. suspicious person/vehicle, etc.
- 701 K-9 requests made
- 86 K-9 call outs made
- 1,244 “back-ups” executed to help other officers on calls
- 222 tracking expeditions
- 257 narcotics and/or explosives sniffs
- 48 special operations completed
- 46 demonstrations and/or presentations done
- 25 arrests made
1Based on 2013 statistics provided by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department K-9 Unit
It is easy to see how important this K-9 Unit is to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and Lexington County as a whole. Without the support of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Foundation, this unit would not be operating at the level it is today. |
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