Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

New K-9 on patrol with Gurdon PD

Therebs a new police officer in town, but there is one catch b this one has four legs.

Gurdon Officer Chris Russell and his new K-9 partner have returned from three weeks of training and are ready to get to work. The three-year-old German shepherd is trained in narcotics, search and rescue, tracking, officer safety and as a cadaver dog, Russell said.

The dog is the only working police K-9 in Clark County.

After seeing the dog in action during his recent training, Russell said he has no doubt that the city has obtained a very high quality dog. The dog was able to locate very small amounts of drugs that were placed inside sealed plastic bags that were placed in cloth bags and then inside vehicles or buildings. He was even able to find marijuana seeds that had been sealed, Russell said.

The dog received most of its training in the Netherlands, and Russell was trained to handle the dog by Greg Durham of Durham Haus Working Dogs in Little Rock. Durham is the only trainer in the state certified through the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

"We did a lot of tracking and a lot of drug work," Russell said of the certification process.

Russell said the Gurdon Police Department decided to pursue the idea of purchasing a dog in an effort to stop the "drug problem" in the area.

"Theybre selling drugs around here," he said. "Now with the dog, we can get probable cause to search and find them."

The dog was purchased primarily from funds donated by area residents and businesses, Russell said. Its cost was $9,500.

The city is now working to purchase an SUV in which the dog will be transported because he is too large to carry in the backseat of a regular patrol car.

One important thing Russell said everyone needs to remember is that no one should try to touch the dog. The dogbs actions when one walks up to the window of the patrol car should be indication enough that he means business, Russell said.

Because the dogbs real name can only be known by Russell, he said the city will be holding a contest to allow the students at Gurdon Primary School to pick the dogbs "public name." The winning studentbs classroom will receive a pizza party and t-shirts.

Russell said he is happy to have his new partner on patrol with him, however there is a bit of irony. While Russell is classified as a patrolman, the state classifies the dog as a sergeant.

"The dog out ranks me," he said.