K9 Program

Benefits to the Community

  • Increased Officer Safety: The deployment of a K9 team can make an officer’s job less dangerous. Night-time foot patrols by K9 teams are powerful, highly visible deterrents to burglars, robbers, and drug dealers. Police dogs are also valuable aids to search dark or dangerous locations.
  • Drug Interdiction: A police dog has more than five times as many olfactory sensory cells as a human. K9 teams are excellent tools to locate and recover illegal drugs from cars, lockers, storage units, and more.

  • Tracking: A police dog and handler can provide valuable and timely tracking services to locate missing/endangered persons, hidden evidence, and fleeing suspects.

  • Efficiency: A trained K9 team can clear a building of suspects in less than one-quarter of the time it would take an officer.

  • Public Relations: K9 teams provide frequent appearances and demonstrations at schools, special events, and community functions. They strengthen relations between police and community members.

  • Asset Forfeiture: Police departments are allowed to keep a percentage of confiscated cash or property that constitute the fruit of criminal conduct, in certain circumstances. 

 

Meet K9 Cam & Lieutenant Sam Santiago!

K9 Cam

K9 Cam and Lieutenant Sam Santiago started training at K9 Services of New Mexico in March of 2020. K9 Cam is a dual-purpose German shepherd, and is trained and certified in narcotics detection, tracking, article searches, and apprehensions. After six weeks of training in New Mexico, Officer Santiago and K9 Cam started working patrol on day shift in late April 2020 and have now transitioned to night shift.

 

 

Click here for information on how you can help our K9 Program!