DuPage sheriff wants your help naming new police dogs
The DuPage County sheriff's office is asking for help naming three new police dogs that will receive training to sniff out narcotics.
Challenge accepted.
Let's see. It has to be short, catchy and relevant. Lucy makes a cute and cuddly name for your fur baby, but it doesn't command respect on a drug bust, does it?
A naming contest on the department's Facebook page has turned the three female dogs - a Belgian Malinois, chocolate Labrador retriever and a black Lab - into internet darlings. Their adorable pictures have inspired hundreds of likes and nearly 200 suggestions for their names.
So far, "Star Wars," Greek mythology, patriotism and the Bible have influenced the list of entries. "10-4" is appropriate but might get confusing. A "Frasier" fan must have come up with Lilith. And Buttercup? Woof.
May we offer these suggestions inspired by female crime fighters: Veronica, as in Veronica Mars, the sharp-witted titular sleuth of the cult-favorite Fox series, or Olivia (Captain Olivia for formal occasions), a nod to "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit."
If you can do better, head over to the sheriff's Facebook page and post a comment with your name of choice.
Heartwarming puppies now, the dogs will eventually have an important job as reliable trackers with their human deputies.
The sheriff's office already has a 20-month-old Belgian Malinois named Odin - see, catchy - that is working with Deputy Tyler Fry, who is trained as a drug recognition expert. The three new dogs will allow the department to have one narcotics canine available on every shift.
"Having one of these dogs, in addition to Odin, our other narcotics K9, available throughout the county on each 12-hour shift will be a major step in our move to a more wholistic narcotics prevention program," Sheriff James Mendrick said in a statement. "Each of these K9 Deputies will be paired with a trained Drug Recognition Expert to also strengthen our enforcement of the new recreational cannabis laws."
The dogs will undergo 160 hours of state-mandated training with the goal of being on-shift by mid-March, sheriff's spokesman Justin Kmitch said. Their keen sense of smell will be able to detect heroin, black tar heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines.
A private donor to a nonprofit group called K9s4COPs allowed the sheriff's office to obtain the canines from Police Service Dogs, Inc., a company based in Oxford, Florida.
Once trained, the dogs also will be available to law enforcement agencies requesting MERIT or Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigation Team services.