3 days ago
Elmira police bring back K-9 program after receiving funding
ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM)— The Elmira Police Department is bringing back its K-9 program for the first time in over ten years after the Elmira City Council approved funding.
The department will receive $122,095 in funding from the county. The funds will go towards the K-9 and other handler fees.
'The dog ranges between fifteen and sixteen thousand dollars, which seems to be the going rate, and then a new patroling vehicle. You're looking at forty-five to fifteen thousand dollars for that. There are those fees and then the handler training fee, and then all of the little things that go with it,' said Kristen Thorne, Elmira Police Department Chief.
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Chief Thorne hopes that everything will be up and running by the end of 2025.
'I'm in the process of trying to get the bids and trying to find the place that we're going to buy it from, so when that happens, most of them it takes a couple of months to do the training on the dog,' said Thorne.
The K-9s will be able to help sniff out drugs and complete tasks to help the department.
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'We are looking to get a dual-purpose dog so he or she will be able to do tracking, building searches, article searches, and then search for narcotics,' said Thorne.' Fentanyl, methenamine, cocaine, we do not test for obviously marijuana anymore, you know, because marijuana is legal now, so the dog won't be trained on that,' he said.
Chief Thorne is currently in the process of choosing a K-9 to add to the department.
'I've reached out to several kennels, I have one in mind. There have been a lot of dogs in surrounding agencies that have come from this kennel, so that's what I would like to do, but that has not been cemented in stone as of yet,' said Thorne.
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