MINOT, N.D. (KXNET) — The Minot Police Department recently welcomed its newest K9.
The department has had K9s to help patrol the streets for close to half a century.
The Minot Police Department currently has three dogs in its K9 Unit, but decades before, there was only one.
“Our first dog though was, his name was Sir, and that was back, I wanna say it was back in the ’70s or early ’80s,” said Lt. Dave Chapman, the Administrative Lieutenant and the K9 Coordinator.
Lt. Chapman says to buy a dog and pay for training and boarding is around $40,000 and to fully upfit a dog and vehicle is close to $100,000.
The purpose of the K9s, according to Lt. Chapman, is to deter people from committing crimes.
“If we get a criminal that’s committed a serious offense and they’re trying to elude us, we can use the dog to find them. We can also use the dog to locate narcotics and explosives and things like that,” said Lt. Chapman.
He says before the newest K9, Cyrus, came, the previous K9s, Mace and Caspian, have been involved in a large number of calls.
“They went on a total of 258 calls. Our drug dog over the last two years was involved in the seizure of $109,882, 2,059 grams of meth and over 3,000 fentanyl pills,” said Lt. Chapman.
Lieutenant Chapman says he expects the numbers to keep increasing in the number of seizures of drugs and money.
The Minot Police Department is still accepting donations to pay for Cyrus.
Lieutenant Chapman says there is still about $80,000 left to pay for the K9. Currently, only cash and checks are accepted.
If you would like to donate to the cause, you can call the Minot Police Department at 701-852-0111 and ask for Lt. Dave Chapman.