Toccoa Police Dept. Introduces Two New K-9’s
Police Chief Tim Jarrell reports two new K-9’s are working at the police station.
Both K-9’s were brought on about 6 months ago and are used as drug dogs.
The first is a Pitbull mix named Tucker who was a rescue brought here from Texas. Tucker works with Officer Lance Brawner, who went to Texas so they could train together.
Tucker is certified on methamphetamine, marijuana, ecstasy, heroine and cocaine.
The other K-9 is a Dutch Shepherd named Warlock who came from an officer in Franklin County. Warlock works with Officer Eric McKinney and has five years’ experience on I-85.
Warlock is not only McKinney’s work partner, but also his personal pet. When McKinney was hired, Warlock was brought on with him.
McKinney said that he and Warlock have a special bond.
“I’ve had Warlock for approximately eight months now,” said McKinney. “He stays with me 24/7, he’s become my best buddy. Our bond is unreal, he knows what I’m going to do and I know what he’s going to do before he does it. We’ve spent a lot of time training and it’s going to be a pleasure serving the citizens of Toccoa.”
Warlock is also a certified drug dog and can detect marijuana, cocaine, heroine and meth.
According to Jarrell, both dogs are passive alert, meaning that they don’t dig, scratch or bark to indicate that they’ve located narcotics. Instead, their partners read their mannerisms to communicate.
Jarrell said that having the K-9’s will be beneficial to the community.
“We’re very happy to be able to have two certified and trained K-9’s with their officers,” said Jarrell. “We believe that they’ll be very beneficial to us as well as the citizens and locating and detecting narcotics and the sell and trafficking of narcotics here in the community.”
According to Jarrell, this is the first time in several years that they’ve had two working, certified K-9’s. The dogs and the officers that are partnered with them will be assigned to shifts different from regular patrol shifts to use their skills more efficiently.