CHAMBLEE, Ga. — A fierce change is in the works for a Dekalb County police department. It is bringing back the K-9 unit after ten years with the goal of keeping the community safe.
The temperatures remained hot Monday outside the Chamblee Police Department, but Officer David Luna raved about how cool his new partner is.
“He is very calm tempered," Luna said. “What he's going to do for the community is bridge the gap between law enforcement and communities.”
His partner is a good boy who's also intelligent and knows three languages.
“When we’re doing our commands and stuff like that, I can say them in English and in Spanish," Luna said. "I use Dutch for him when I’m out in public, and no one understands the words for it.”
K-9 Robin is a three-year-old Belgian Malinois and will serve as a multi-purpose officer.
“We started imprinting him with narcotics," Luna said. "He's trained on five drugs. There's cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin, crack, cocaine, and marijuana.”
Chamblee Police Chief Gary Yandura said the department had requested K-9s 70 times over the past year and is glad one will soon be in-house.
“We have a lot of elderly people that have Alzheimer's or some type of issue where they disappear, and we can't find them. Robin's capable of tracking and locating these people, which is great," Yandura said.
The department believes K-9 Robin will be a great resource for the community.
“We're looking extremely forward to meet with the school age kids in kindergarten or any of elementary schools," Yandura said.
K-9 Robin will hit the streets within a few weeks, and those at Chamblee Police hope he can help them put their best foot and paw forward in the future.
“We're just looking to make a stable and a good foundation for the next K-9 to come and actually have a good foundation to follow and good training," Luna said.
The chill officer is done with his training and ready to return K-9s to the department.