Middlesex Police introduce new K-9
MIDDLESEX TWP — Middlesex K-9 officer Mark Heider introduced the township’s new police dog, an 18-month-old German Shepherd named Bolt, at a Middlesex board of supervisors meeting on Wednesday night.
The township’s previous K-9, Mibo, who had been with the department since 2015, died Aug. 14 of a “medical emergency,” according to the department.
Bolt will be trained as a narcotics dog, as opposed to a bomb detection dog, based on recommendations from Heider and the police department.
K-9 dogs can have two different types of training, and Mibo was a bomb-detection dog. Heider explained that dogs cannot be trained to do both narcotics detection and bomb detection because it would be dangerous for a dog to signal the presence of something without it being clear whether the danger is from drugs or explosives.
“Our recommendation, and my recommendation, is specifically we should go with a drug dog. It is more beneficial for what we are dealing with,” Heider said. “He will still have all the capabilities for the patrol, which is important to me.”
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