The Madison Police Department's K9 unit is comprised of six dogs. All of the dogs are dual-purpose dogs, trained in both narcotics detection and patrol work (building searches, tracking, etc). Five of the dogs are assigned to patrol services, and one is assigned to the West District Community Policing Team.
The department’s K9 teams provide a great service to the community, tracking missing persons, apprehending suspects and locating evidence. They allow patrol officers to work in a safer and more efficient manner and perform functions that human officers are simply unable to do. For example, officers searching a building—without the benefit of a K9 team—will take much longer to perform the search (and will be exposed to greater risk). Performing a building search with a K9 team will enable to the search to be performed in much less time, increasing efficiency (freeing up officers for other calls/duties) and decreasing risk to officers. The K9 teams have tracked (and located) missing persons, apprehended dangerous suspects, and been responsible for the removal of a significant amount of illegal drugs and weapons from the community.
All the costs of the patrol K9 teams (except for officer salaries) are provided by community donations. A non-profit organization – Capital K9’s – staffed by community volunteers raises funds to support the unit.
