DuPage County Sheriff's Office Welcomes Explosive-Sniffing Canine 'Nitro'
CHICAGO (CBS)-- Canine Deputy Nitro joined the DuPage County Sheriff's Office Canine Unit.
Nitro, 3, is a German Sherpherd-Belgian Malinois who is trained to detect over 250 permutations of explosives, including gun powder.
The new canine deputy will be stationed at the DuPage County Courthouse with Deputy Frank Carragher.
"This dog will proactively seek out bombs and guns. We'll use it for those acts of violence but the biggest value of a bomb dog is what it prevents," Sheriff James Mendrick said. "It's hard to quantify something that doesn't happen but Nitro is there to make sure it doesn't happen."
Nitro will join two other bloodhounds currently in the Canine Unit. Four additional canines are currently being trained to sniff out drugs and cadavers will join.