Police Department

SPD Introducing First Bloodhound to K9 Unit

Ofc. Teresa Fuller, 509.835.4568, tfuller@spokanepolice.org

Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 10:30 a.m.

The Spokane Police Department K9 Unit has just added a new and very unique family member; Daisy the bloodhound! Not only is Daisy SPD’s first ever bloodhound, but she will be utilized in a very different manner from our typical patrol K9’s. Daisy, who is not trained to contact suspects, will be helping her handler, Sgt. Jason Reynolds, find missing children and vulnerable adults. All of the funds used to acquire Daisy were donated by K9 Support Northwest, a local non-profit that raises money to assist K9 units in our area.

A couple of weeks ago, Sgt. Jason (Chachi) Reynolds traveled to California to meet Daisy, a bloodhound who, at the time, was being housed by a rescue group. Sgt. Reynolds and Daisy formed an immediate bond. They spent a week training in California before heading back to Spokane and will continue training here to get her ready for her deployment this summer. Daisy will be available today, April 28, 2016, at 2:00pm at 2302 N. Waterworks for media interviews and cuddles.

Bloodhounds are different from the German Shepherds and Malinois we typically use as patrol K9’s in large part because their sense of smell is better. One particular publication named them the breed with “the best sense of smell”. It has been documented bloodhounds can track a scent that is several days old and Daisy will only be used to track people in non-criminal cases such as missing children and adults. Her abilities will likely mean a significant savings in man-hours for our department during those searches.

K9 Support NW was founded in 2014 by Carla Blazek, a Spokane photographer and dog lover who has been photographing our local K9 units for two years. Their mission is to raise funds for police K9 units in Washington, Idaho and Montana that are in need of supplemental funding to purchase dogs, ballistic vests, training and equipment. They also plan to work as an educational resource for communities by helping to explain how K9s benefit both police departments and the community. K9 Support NW is a 501(c)3 tax-exempt charitable organization which operates independently of any law enforcement agency. For more information, please visit their website: http://www.k9snw.org/

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• K9 Daisy

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