KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The Knox County Sheriff’s Office celebrated the 30th anniversary of its K-9 division by hosting a friendly photo contest on its social media.
Sixteen current K-9 officers were pictured with their handlers in the post shared by KCSO Thursday morning. Followers of the page voted on the “pick out the most beautiful/handsomest good doggo” and votes can be cast in the comments.
On Friday, KCSO announced the winner of the competition as K-9 Blu, a hound dog. An Facebook post from KCSO earlier this year shares that Blu joined the sheriff’s office in April and a video posted on May 4 showed him working on his training. While he may be one of the youngest pups on the team, born on January 1 of this year, he appears to fit right in. KCSO said when he started that eh would serve as a cadaver K-9. According to Sheriff Spangler, he was the first cadaver dog that the office has had in a while, as K-9 Blitz, the previous cadaver dog, retired in 2008.
Second place was awarded to K9 Rico, third went to KP Diego, and fourth went to KP Trip.
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According to KCSO’s website about its K-9 Division, the unit is comprised of 19 police service dog teams “dedicated to serving our citizens and fellow law enforcement officers in numerous ways.”
The highly trained police dogs perform multiple disciplines such as tracking, drug detection, explosives detection, protecting handlers and other officers, apprehending on command people who are a danger to law enforcement or the community, locating evidence and demonstrating their skills for schools, churches and organizations.
“Our K-9 teams are too much of a blessing not to let the people they serve get to know them,” KCSO states on its website.
The KCSO K-9 contest was posted on the agency’s Facebook page.
EDITORS NOTE: This story has been updated with new information.