Miami Beach Police K9 Unit Expands Force With Vader
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MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – There's a new member of the Miami Beach Police Department, a four legged member, who is ready to begin his training.
K9 Vader, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois is the department's newest recruit.
Vader will begin an intense 480 hours of K9 training with his partner Officer John Novo.
Five K9's 'interviewed' for the position on Wednesday and tested with handlers, but ultimately, Vader was deemed the perfect fit.
Miami Beach Police officials said they were looking for a dual purpose dog for criminal apprehension and bomb detection. "
"This is an incredible tool that we handle on a daily basis," said Capt. Henry Doce. "These dogs are used into building searches, area searches; we're constantly looking for criminal subjects that flee from the police that have committed violent crimes, so they're also used in either bomb sweeps or narcotic sweeps as well."
Vader was donated to the police department by the Miami Beach K9 Knights, a non-profit organization dedicated to purchasing police dogs for the Miami Beach Police Department K9 unit.
The police department K9 unit currently consists of 12 police dogs and Vader is "the lucky 13th", according to Miami Beach Police spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez.
