(ABOVE) Danville Police Chief Christopher Yates (middle) addresses the Danville City Council Public Services committee during February 27th meeting.
This coming Tuesday (March 5th) evening’s Danville City Council agenda will include approval for two new Danville Police Department K-9 units. Previously, the Danville Police had three. But now, with one still active, Chief Christopher Yates is hoping to have two new ones, as well as two brand two K-9 police officers, fully trained and up and running by June 1st.
This past Tuesday (Feb 27th), the City Council Public Services Committee passed on to the full council an agreement with Midwest Professional K-9 Services, out of Vermilion County on Hodge Street in Danville; who would be doing a nationwide search for the new police dogs. Chief Yates says two new K-9 officers will need to be selected as well. The new K-9 dogs will live with their new handlers. And the chief says they’ll be looking for officers with the merit, as well as the work ethic, to be selected.
AUDIO: These are working dogs. There’s training time; there’s care for them. So there’s a lot more that goes into it than just having a dog that’s readily available. It’s a huge responsibility, and we make sure that the officers that are selected understand that. And that they also understand the requirements of being in that unit.
It is well known that K-9 dogs can use their sense of smell to search for illegal drugs, or missing human beings or animals. But as Chief Yates points out, they can also search for very important clues.
AUDIO: They can do article searches. Such as if someone throws a weapon; or an item of evidence, contraband. Those dogs are able to do area searches for different items and locate them. But they’re also very good in tracking people. Such as maybe someone wandered off in the woods. Maybe there’s a child or an elderly person, that’s got diminished capacities, that’s missing.
Chief Yates says the total cost of acquiring the two new K-9s will be around $30,000; being paid for by money from drug seizures that’s been awarded to the city.
