Tallahassee Police SVU K9 Unit Finds Missing Teen
The Tallahassee Police SVU K9 Unit found a missing 13-year-old teen on Nov. 2, 2020. Scent discriminate Bloodhound, K9 Jon Jon, was just sworn into service with the Tallahassee Police Dept. Special Victims K9 Unit 2 weeks ago and has already had his first life-saving find. K9 Jon Jon trailed over 3 miles before locating the missing teen. Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley, stated, “We are grateful for the commitment to public safety demonstrated by the City of Tallahassee Police Dept. Because of their hard work and exemplary K9 trailing skills, another missing child’s life has been saved.”
TPD Recognized Internationally for Excellence in Criminal Investigations
The Tallahassee Police Department was recently honored with the 2020 IACP/Thomson Reuters Excellence in Criminal Investigations Award. Given by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), this award recognizes a law enforcement agency, unit, task force, or inter-agency task force for exceptional innovation in criminal investigations. The award focused on a case in which substantial K9 scent discriminate search deployments were conducted by Scent Evidence K9 CEO Paul Coley. For the full City of Tallahassee Press Release CLICK HERE.
Bringing The Lost Home Project Provides Advanced K9 Search Resources for Tallahassee Agencies
K9 Jon Jon and his handler were trained by Scent Evidence K9. K9 Jon Jon is specially-trained to trail a person’s unique scent over urban hard-surfaces and wooded areas. The Tallahassee Police SVU K9 Unit is participating in the Bringing The Lost Home Project. The BTLH Project provides Advanced K9 and Missing Person Response Protocol Training to Florida Sheriff’s Offices and Police Departments. The Advanced K9 Search resources are designed to enhance and improve location and recovery success especially with populations at risk of wandering or elopement such as those with Alzheimer’s Disease or Autism. The Bringing The Lost Home Project bill was sponsored by Rep. Scott Plakon and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in both 2019 and 2020. The project also implements a Scent Kit program aimed at providing families and caregivers with a way to pre-collect and store the scent of an at-risk individual. The Scent Kit gives K9 responders an uncontaminated scent article to search with resulting in faster and accurate search results. To learn more about Scent Kits CLICK HERE. BTLH is a partnership between Scent Evidence K9 and The Alzheimer’s Project. To learn more about Bringing The Lost Home CLICK HERE.
Read About K9 Jon Jon’s Swearing-In Ceremony Complete With Doggie Ice Cream HERE
Citizens For Scent Evidence
K9 Jon Jon’s life-saving addition to the TPD K9 Unit was made possible by Scent Evidence K9 and Citizens for Scent Evidence, a non-profit organization formed by the Tallahassee Board of Realtors that accepts donations from area businesses and citizens to support the growth of the Tallahassee Police Departments advanced K9 Search capabilities.
To learn more about Citizens for Scent Evidence and how you can contribute CLICK HERE.
