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KEARNEY — The Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office announced that after a recent community vote, their new K9 unit will be named Fritz.
The Buffalo County Commissioners approved the purchase of a new K9 unit that will specialize in narcotics detecting and tracking.
The vote for the name resulted in Fritz received 44 percent of votes, Nitro received 29 percent and Bolt, 27 percent. Deputy Nathan Howe will be the handler of Fritz.
Sheriff Neil Miller said during the July commissioners meeting, currently the co-located sheriff’s office and Kearney Police Department share K9 services.
Miller said the sheriff’s office was approached by a private citizen about the office having access to their own K9 unit. Miller said the sheriff’s office was interested in having a single purpose dog as opposed to a patrol and narcotics dog.
Miller explained that a K9 trained for patrol is trained to track down and potentially hold fleeing suspects by biting. For general safety, the patrol dogs are not used often around the general public.
A K9 trained in only narcotics detection and tracking is considered safer to be used in a public setting, such as visiting schools, Howe said.
The tracking dogs are generally utilized to track suspects who have fled a scene or to find missing people. Howe noted that the dogs trained in tracking only and not patrol tend to be better trackers.
Howe said the K9 unit they would acquire would be a Shorthaired Pointer as opposed to a German Shepard Dog or a Belgian Malinois, which are commonly employed as patrol K9s.
The K9 would be acquired from BlueStreak K9, of Jonesboro, Ark., and the cost of the K9 and its equipment would be covered entirely by private donations made to the sheriff’s office, Miller said.
Howe said he and the K9 would train for five weeks at the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center in Grand Island. After the training, a recertification would be required every year.
Miller said that acquiring this K9 unit for the sheriff’s office would allow for more coverage of a deputy on patrol with a K9.
