Hartford

Police K9s Graduate From Firearm Detection Program

Four K9s, two troopers and two officers from the cities of Hartford and Meriden graduated from the newly created Firearm Detection K9 Training.

For the first time, Connecticut has police dogs that can sniff out guns.

"Shell casings, rounds, scenes, guns that a trooper themselves would not be able to locate," said Trooper First Class Christine Jeltema.

Today four K9s, two troopers and two officers for the cities of Hartford and Meriden graduated from the Connecticut State Police Academy after a rigorous 11 week training program.

They are the first graduates from this newly created program.

Different than bomb dogs, they’ll be used in places like malls and schools to detect guns on people and inside ordinary items. Having a specially trained dog like this one will give a leg up to officers in cities like Meriden.

"We've had an uptick in shootings this year where we are recovering casings and guns,” said Officer James Decrisantis of the Meriden Police Department. “I know our crime suppression guys have recovered a least a couple dozen firearms this year. That’s a lot for us. So adding this dogs capability our officers it will give us an edge."

Their super scent is better than the human eye.

"Police officers we miss stuff, at least in large area searches,” Decrisantis said. “We could send her into a football field and she'll find casings in pieces of firearms."

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