5th Annual Bringing The Lost Home Summit Celebrates 500 Finds In Florida
Tallahassee, Florida (April 7, 2025) – Scent discriminate K9 Teams from across Florida attended the 5th Annual Bringing The Lost Home Summit in Tallahassee March 25-27, 2025. The annual K9 training event drew top performing K9 Teams from participating Bringing The Lost Home Program agencies from multiple counties across Florida. K9 Search Deployment successes reported by our Florida partners reached the 500 Find milestone just as the Summit began. “This is a huge achievement for the Bringing The Lost Home Program and a testament of the hard work and commitment to excellence by our law enforcement and community partnerships. Lives are being saved, families reunited, and communities are safer thanks to our BTLH partners,” stated Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley.
FSU Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director, David Merrick, trains K9 Handlers on new drone technology
K9 teams from 20 participating Florida Sheriff’s Offices and Police Departments were invited to attend the fifth annual event and share their lifesaving K9 search results and best practices with other agencies around Florida. Participants had the opportunity to build their K9 search skills through advanced scenario-based scent discriminate trailing exercises to support the program’s goals of improving missing person response capabilities, K9 search recovery success, and community awareness of Florida’s vulnerable populations with Alzheimer’s Disease and autism who are at high risk of wandering and going missing.
Orange Co Sheriff’s Office Deputy Allan Darcey and K9 Roscoe on the trail
The lifesaving Bringing The Lost Home Program provides missing person response training, advanced scent discriminate K9 training, scent collection technology, and Scent Kit program resources through the highly successful BTLH legislative bill. The Program was originally sponsored by Florida House Representative, Scott Plakon and is now championed by Rep. Rachel Plakon. The bill was signed into law by Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, in June 2024.
St. Johns Co Sheriff’s Office Deputy Melanie Merritt and K9 Daisy trail the target
The 3-Day Advanced Scent Discriminate K9 Trailing Summit analyzed reporting data that contributed to the 500 Find milestone and recognized 3 Top Performing K9 Teams with Master Handler certificates for their search deployment successes. “Our training program is built around delivering measurable results and the deployment reports from our agency partners help us develop evidence-based training to find missing persons fast and bring the home safe,” stated Coley. The FSU Dept. of Homeland Security and Emergency Mgmt. provided drone overwatch and information on advancements in drone technology that can help keep K9 teams safer during search deployments. WTXL ABC 27 in Tallahassee was on hand to cover the event. Click HERE to see the “Paws On The Ground” News story.
Dep. Kathryn Touchstone (Escambia Co Sheriff’s Office, FL), Dep. Lewis Kurtz (Leon Co Sheriff’s Office, FL), and Dep. Glen Pedersen (visiting from New Hanover Co Sheriff’s Office, NC) receive their Master Handler Certificates during the 5th Annual Bringing The Lost Home Summit.Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office Cpl. Steven Sella Gives K9 Zoe Treats after finding the target during the 5th Annual BTLH Scent Discriminate Training Summit
Here are a few of the many highlights of Florida’s Bringing The Lost Program that helped achieve the 500 Find Milestone.
We are so grateful when we are able to reunite a person who goes missing in our community with their loved ones!
Are you concerned about a family member with Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism or another condition that could cause them to wander off? Pick up one of our FREE Scent Preservation Kits for Orange County residents at our 2500 W. Colonial Drive headquarters and substations. These kits can help K9s search for a person if they go missing.
Tallahassee Bloodhound K9 Rex Locates Missing Endangered Person!
Leon County Sheriff’s Office Bloodhound, K9 Rex
Dep. Kurtz and K9 Rex have multiple missing person and suspect locations to their credit as part of Florida’s Bringing The Lost Home Program. Scent Evidence K9 and Leon County Sheriff’s Office will be partnering for the 5th Annual Bringing The Lost Home Summit in Tallahassee March 25-27, 2025. Scent discriminate K9 teams from agencies across Florida will attend the event to learn advanced scent discriminate K9 trailing, scent collection, and missing person response techniques to enhance K9 search capabilities. The training is part of Florida’s Bringing The Lost Home Program.
Great Trail K9 Rex and Dep. Kurtz and Thanks to the Leon County Sheriff’s Office for their commitment to creating a safer community.
Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Dep. Kathryn Touchstone and K9 Buster find the target during the 5th Annual Bringing The Lost Home Summit
K9 Buster Locates Missing Endangered Juvenile!
Dep. Kathryn Touchstone and K9 Buster from Escambia County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call to help locate a missing juvenile who had consumed an unknown type and quantity of cleaning chemicals prior to leaving their residence on foot. Dep. Touchstone collected a scent article and presented the odor to K9 Buster, a scent discriminate Beagle. The youth had been missing for 45 minutes. K9 Buster trailed .22 miles in 6 minutes and located the missing juvenile.
“Every second counts when lives are on the line. Dep. Touchstone and K9 Buster used their scent discriminate training to quickly locate the endangered youth,” stated Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley. Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is a participating Bringing The Lost Home Program partner agency in Florida and will be attending the 5th Annual BTLH Summit in Tallahassee Mar. 25-27, 2025.
3 Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office K9 Teams Locate 3 Burglary Suspects!
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office K9 Teams
Cpl. Sella and K9 Zoe, a Scent Evidence K9 Bloodhound alumnus, were called out to trail 3 burglary suspects along with DFC Giardina and K9 Raider. The suspects bailed out of their vehicle and fled on foot after an attempted traffic stop. The trail was 2.5 hours old. The responders collected a scent article using a Scent Kit gauze pad from an object dropped from the truck by the suspects. K9 Zoe, a scent discriminate Bloodhound, began trailing the scent with K9 Raider following. K9 Zoe had to go under barbed wire fences and identified articles and evidence along the trail. Cpl. Mills and K9 Rico were also notified and arrived at the scent at this point. K9 Zoe trailed to a business that was surrounded by a 6 ft. fence and indicated that the suspects had gone over the fence. Cpl. Sella and Cpl. Mills entered the fenced in area and continued to work the area where officers located the 3 suspects concealed inside a tractor trailer cargo area at the business. The trail was a mile in length. “This is a great example of teamwork by Cpl. Sella, DFC Giardina, Cpl. Mills and their K9s. They used their scent discriminate K9 response training to place search resources where they were needed to achieve a successful target location,” stated Scent Evidence K9 CEO, Paul Coley.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office is a long-time Florida Bringing The Lost Home partner and their K9 teams have trained with Scent Evidence K9 for many years. Their hard work and commitment to trailing excellence has resulted in the location of many suspects and the recovery of multiple missing persons. Great Job CCSO K9 Teams and Thanks to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office for their commitment to creating a safer community.
Visit our FACEBOOK page to learn about the many more Pawsome K9 Finds by our Florida Bringing The Lost Home partner agencies.
