VASSALBORO, Maine — Editor's Note: The video above aired Jan. 16, 2020.
Over the past nine weeks, three dogs having been training through the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to join other police K9s across the state.
"We have a huge need for them for finding missing children to people that have wandered away in the woods, to helping combat our drug epidemic, to helping getting some of those illegal narcotics off the streets," Maine State Police Sgt. Adam Schmidt said.
The dogs are learning tasks like how to track people, catch a suspect, and search for evidence.
"They are the tip of the spear if you will. When they go in and look for somebody, if they are going to look for somebody in a building or for somebody in the woods, it doesn't matter. They are the first entity that gets that officer over to that suspect," K9 trainer Scott Dalton said.
Schmidt said because Maine is so rural, it's also important for officers to have a K9 for safety.
"Back up could be 45-minuts to an hour away. Having that partner with you in the back seat watching our backs—maybe someone is coming up on your vehicle—they are going to bark and let you know they are there," he said.
Once the dogs graduate in June, they will move on to training on how to find drugs in the fall and join 50 other K9s in Maine.