The Richmond Police Department K-9 Unit is currently made up of three canine teams. Each team consists of a handler and a dog. Our dogs are European Bred and are all dual purpose. They are passive indicating dogs so there is little or no damage when they follow narcotic odor to source. They are trained in both narcotics and patrol. Our dogs are utilized for narcotic detection, building searches, area searches, tracking, crowd control, apprehension, take down and handler protection. Our dogs are very social and obedient. We do many demonstrations each year showing off their talents and they bring in much praise from the community.

Our police cars are K-9 Cruise Eze Units equipped with Criminalistics Bail-Out systems. The dogs are kenneled at our homes and are only worked by one handler. Each K-9 team is susceptible to being called out at any time. This is usually handled on a rotation basis. Our dogs remain the property of the City of Richmond until their retirement at which time they become the property of their respective handler.

Our K-9 teams train together and with neighboring agency K-9 teams every other Friday, in lieu of working their normal shifts those days. Our trainings vary in both locations and scenarios. Our handlers are compensated each week with four hours overtime for the maintenance required by the dogs outside the realm of their regular shifts.

We are very fortunate in that we've had the support of local organizations such as the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Loyal Order of Moose. The very generous donations received from these two organizations have been used to purchase most, if not all the dogs we have and have had on the department. If it wasn't for the support of these organizations, it's questionable as to whether or not we would have a K-9 unit.

We are also very fortunate to have Hill's Pet Nutrition in the community that so graciously donates the food to us for our dogs. This too helps assure the success of our K-9 program.

Each of our dogs has been equipped with a bulletproof vest. These vest were made possible by a fund raising effort of Julia Roberts of the Greens Fork Animal Hospital. Donations received by her from the Moose Lodge, Wal-Mart and other individuals are what made the purchase of these vests possible. Our dog's veterinary care is supplied by the Greens Fork Animal Hospital at a discounted rate.

The purchase and maintenance of these dogs is an expensive endeavor but thanks to the support of the businesses, organizations and individuals in the community, it's one that is given the opportunity to prove its worth. These dogs are an asset to the community in numerous ways and they prove it everyday.