K-9 unit now on the job for Americus Police Department

AMERICUS – The Americus Police Department held a press conference Friday morning at the Rees Park Economic Development Center to announce the addition of a new K-9 team, consisting of officer Chris Gaddy and his 2-year-old German shepard partner, Vonn, both of whom recently graduated from the Alabama Canine Law Enforcement Officer’s Training Center.

Both Gaddy, who has worked for the Americus Police Department since 2016, and his four-legged partner completed a grueling 160-hour training course in narcotics detection and tracking before beginning active duty last Monday.

“I was hired on by the Americus Police Department in December of 2016,” Gaddy said Friday. “I worked about a year and a half and then went to the law enforcement training center in Northport, Alabama. It’s about 45 minutes north of Tuscaloosa. They really do some of the best training there, so that’s where they decided to send me. The training lasts about four weeks. We train between 10 and 12 hours per day for a total of 160 hours. I returned last Friday and have been actively working since Monday with my new canine.”

Gaddy explained that his interest in the K-9 program spawned from his love of animals and his desire to get drugs off the streets.

“I have always loved animals and have been a dog person,” he said. “I have a little Husky at home that my new canine, Vonn, the German shepard, loves and they get along great. I also always wanted to work somewhere along the drug avenue. Being a K-9 officer gives me the perfect opportunity to do that, to help get drugs off the streets. I want to clean up the streets. As you know, guns, drugs and crime go hand in hand. To make our community a better and safer place, that’s what we are aiming for.”

Gaddy admitted that Vonn was the real star of the show and that it was the amazing nose that dogs have that makes K-9 police work possible.

“Vonn is approximately 2 years old,” Gaddy said. “He is a big boy. He weighs approximately 82 pounds. He actually came from the Czech Republic. All of his commands are Czech. He knows the Czechoslovakian language. That is something I had to learn while I was there. Most of the good pure-breed German shepards come from overseas.

“He is a very energetic and friendly dog. He loves people and he loves playing. And he loves working. He has plenty of energy and loves to get out there searching for drugs and narcotics or running tracks.”

Gaddy said that Vonn is a drugs, narcotics and tracking dog.

“If someone runs into the woods and disappears, he can track people,” the APD officer said. “He is trained to follow ecological ground disturbance, and he can track to where that person went.”

Gaddy described some of the intensive training both he and Vonn went through.

“The training was between 10 and 12 hours per day, but we were able to get breaks; the dog was able to get water and all of that,” he said. “About the first week or two was really getting comfortable with the dog and learning the method of search. Each dog moves and searches at a different pace or speed. The canine handler and the dog have to mesh and find a medium where they work well together and bond.

“After that, it was more of just repetition, doing different searches in different locations, presenting different types of environments to the dog and to the handler, and getting comfortable working.”

According to Gaddy,Vonn is trained to detect numerous drugs including, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana, LSD and MDMA.

“Their noses are unbelievable,” he said. “If there are three different drugs in one area, they can determine each different drug. The way they are rewarded is with a toy. Essentially, they are looking for that odor, not necessarily the drug. They are looking for the odor of the drug.

“Once they find that odor, they associate that odor with their toy. They are trained that the odor is actually the toy. They have a drive to play with that toy and to want that toy. When they find the odor, or get to the end of that track, they are rewarded with a kind of paycheck to them, which is the toy. That is their end game and what they are always looking for.”

Gaddy explained that different dogs signal their handlers in different ways.

“Vonn has one signal; it is a sit,” Gaddy said. “Some dogs have an aggressive signal, like a scratch, a bite or a bark, but our dog is trained so when he finds that odor, he will just sit down and stare intently at that spot.”

According to Americus Police Chief Mark Scott, the assignment of the new K-9 team serves as a hallmark moment for the city of Americus Police Department, as well as the One Sumter Economic Development Foundation.

“In 2017, One Sumter embarked on its final strategy for enhancing the image of Americus and Sumter County,” Scott wrote in a press release about the new team. “Recognizing that safety, health and overall welfare of Sumter County residents is essential to our community’s growth, the One Sumter Board of Directors launched One Sumter’s Crime Initiative as a pivotal component of One Sumter’s comprehensive economic development strategy.

“The initiative seeks to support local law enforcement officials and to address the safety and public welfare of residents, businesses and visitors to our community, in an effort to spur residential growth and economic vitality. In a response to stated needs of Sumter County’s law enforcement community, One Sumter committed to investing $45,000 toward the purchase of a K-9 drug and tracking search dog, related training for the K-9’s handler and assigned officer, and to fully equip the necessary patrol unit. As a part of the partnership, Americus Veterinary Services and Dr. Kyler Crawford are donating one year of service and care for the K-9 at no cost to APD.”