LONOKE COUNTY, Ark. (KTHV) - The Lonoke County Sheriff’s office has added three new K9 officers to their department: Storm, Atlas and Kona.
Kona came from Texas; she was given to the department through GI money granted to one of their deputies. Storm was bought by the department through fundraising. Atlas was given to the department by the Carlisle police department.
Before the K9 officers and handlers hit the streets they have to go through a two week training program.
Owner of Von Klein Stein Working Dogs, Joseph Smith, said the dogs are trained to find drugs and work patrol.
“There's dope in the boxes at training so we just want them to get used to finding the odor. The foundation of having a good police dog is good obedience and the longer they work it gets better and better,” he said.
At the training, K9 officers also go through outing drills, the drills teach them how to release suspects and toys.
“They use their nose to find the bad guy and alert us that the bad guy is there, which saves lives, it saves officers lives,” Smith said.
Deputy Rob Rubel with the Lonoke County Sheriff’s office is Kona's handler.
“If I would've known handling a dog was this much fun I would've had one a long time ago to begin with. This has been a welcome addition to my family as well as to the Sheriff’s office,” Ruble said.
He said the addition of the dogs will help them fight the war on drugs.
“These dogs are trained in the detection of narcotics so if you are transporting or in possession of it in Lonoke county and you come in contact with one of these dogs, we're going to catch you,” he said.
The drug dogs also paired with the schools in the county. Cabot school district officials tell us they can't wait to start using the k9 officers to help build trust between students and law enforcement.