Conway Police Department welcomes second narcotic detection K9

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - Conway police will soon have their own narcotics dogs available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week after their second K9 finished certification Friday afternoon.

K9 Rubble and his handler Officer Jake Read completed 140 hours of training together to allow Rubble to join the Conway Police Department as a narcotics detection dog. Conway Police Chief Dale Long said adding Rubble to the team allows the department to have access to narcotics dogs 24/7 since they were limited before with only one K9.

“So we’ve missed half the time they have access to a K9,” said Long. “That changes today so now we’ll have a dog even though he can’t work 24 hours a day at least pretty well 7 days a week we’ll have a dog at our disposal to be able to assist us with investigations.”

Rubble is trained to detect odors including marijuana, meth, cocaine and heroin and he alerts his handler when those odors are present by sitting down.

Being a handler, and training with Rubble is something Officer Read said is a childhood dream come true.

“I haven’t had a working dog in this aspect and it just feels great,” said Read. “I’ve dreamed of this since I was a little kid and to accomplish this in my life is a big stepping stone for me. It feels amazing.”

Adding Rubble to the team allows Conway PD to be more independent, lessening their need to reach out to Horry County to utilize their K9 officers.

“We do have good resources we can use Horry County if they’re on duty if their dog is in the area,” said Long. “They do assist but it means a lot to us to have at our disposal that we can use, hit the radio, make a phone call and he is on the way.”

Rubble has completed his training and will soon be sworn in and given his badge by Chief Long. The date for the swearing-in ceremony has not been set.

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