A Paw-some new addition: Perry PD welcomes three K-9s to agency

PERRY – The Perry Police Department has welcomed three new K-9s to its team. Kirka, Bowie and Rocco are ready to serve and protect their community. 

K-9 Unit Supervisor Sergeant Skyler Bryant said the department is excited about their new officers and they are adapting well to their new roles. He shared that the K-9 unit is a very valuable resource to the police department, not only for their skills and discipline, but also for community building. 

The police department has four teams of handlers and dogs, Bryant included. As a supervisor, he ensures they have everything they need to deploy to their squad or the situation they are facing. 

He is also responsible for the logistics. Bryant is the point of contact to schedule demonstrations for the police department. 

The police department receives the dogs from South Georgia K-9, located in Dooly County. The K-9s at the PPD are trained to detect narcotic odors, meaning they are disciplined in narcotics and tracking. 

Bryant explained that tracking is used in both criminal apprehension and recovering runaway children. He shared that years ago, a child with autism ran away and the police department deployed a K-9 track to help locate the child. The child was found within minutes. 

Other scenarios the police department has experienced are elderly individuals, who may be diagnosed with dementia, leaving their nursing homes. 

Bryant said the K-9 handlers and PPD are equipped to respond to those cases and deploy valuable resources quickly. When they receive those calls, each squad with a patrol dog on their crew gets the K-9 on the ground to start tracking. 

Those skills are constantly developed. He explained that there is monthly training that both handlers and their K-9s attend. 

Whenever the K-9s come to the police department, they are assigned to a handler, who attends a four-week handler school to get certified. However, this is determined on a case-by-case basis. 

Each handler works in narcotics and is a proactive officer. Their dogs get to see and learn from them as well, Bryant explained. 

Bryant believes K-9s help the police department in many ways. 

“The mission of the police department is to keep people safe; that’s our primary focus. With the K-9s, they provide us a level of additional resources that is, sometimes, truly unbelievable as far as what they can do,” he said. 

Another valuable resource K-9s provide is community outreach. Bryant said the department also hosts demonstrations at local schools and organizations to build connections and rapport. 

“[People] get so excited about seeing the dogs, but the general atmosphere is very excited. Each one of the patrol squads now has a dog that has come back to their shift. We’re very excited, we’re excited for them to get to work, excited to see what they find in the weeks, months and years to come,” he said. 

The K-9s are often a talking point between handlers and citizens. He said whenever handlers are out in public, people approach them asking questions. 

“Those are things that help us talk to people and show people we’re human. It’s a community building division as well,” he said. “The outreach that we get whether it’s just that common contact every day on the road just by citizens that just want to come up and strike up a conversation. The K-9s on the side of the vehicles kind of gives them that motivation to come up and talk.”

Bryant remembered a demonstration where a young woman approached him and started talking to him about a problem in her neighborhood. She told him she typically wouldn’t have approached an officer to discuss it, but was more comfortable sharing at the demonstration.

“That’s the beauty of having the unit as well is the fact that it develops those community relations. It can make people who typically wouldn’t talk to us about something come up and make them comfortable to share information with us or just chat with us and realize police officers are humans too,” he said. 

The unit aims for K-9s to develop a rapport in a non-stressful, non-work-related atmosphere. During their first weeks on the job, the focus is more on community engagement before handlers get certified, which takes approximately four weeks. 

Bryant shared that the new K-9s are doing fantastic, adapting to their new home. Bryant also mentioned the handlers have developed a rapport with their dogs and are now certified. He said the unit has been receiving high praise. 

Bryant said he is thankful for the community’s support and noticed they are big K-9 fans. He encourages the community to speak to handlers whenever they see them. 

“If they want to see the dogs, come talk to us. If they see the big red ‘K-9’ on the side of the car, come up. We’re all friendly, everybody wants to talk, everybody would love to chat and get to know people,” he said.