St. Paul K-9 team wins national competition
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A local Minnesota K-9 unit that has worked together since 2019 won a national narcotics competition.
The United States Police Canine Association hosted the competition 64 canine teams from across the country competed in.
Cha Vang, a canine corrections officer, and K-9 partner Sammi are from Minnesota Correctional Facility Lino Likes and St. Cloud.
Vang and Sammi conducted almost 200 narcotics searches in the first three months of 2023.
"Removing drugs from our facilities is extremely important in keeping staff and incarcerated people safe," said Vang. "Drugs can cause many health and safety concerns and we work incredibly hard to remove these harmful substances from impacting everyone in our facilities."
Judges evaluated their abilities to find hidden narcotics. Among their scores in the competition, Vang and Sammi had two that were perfect.
Scores were on the canine's response, alertness, and location abilities. Handlers' scores were on their ability to identify behavior changes, which was paramount when narcotics were present.
Sammi was the department's first single-purposed dog focused solely on searching for narcotics.
"I'm grateful to represent the Minnesota Department of Corrections," said Vang. "Taking top honors in a national competition is something I'll forever be proud of and means so much to our department."