MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – The Myrtle Beach Police Department recently added two new K9s to the force, one of which is the only dog trained to detect explosives in their K9 unit.
It’s been close to a decade since Myrtle Beach police have had a bomb-sniffing dog. Police say the K9 named ‘Goggles’ will mainly be used to sweep an area for explosives before a big event in the city.
“She’s trained in a lot of odors, she has a lot of drive and she can work for a long time,” K9 Officer Kenneth Harlow, with the Myrtle Beach Police Department, said.
Harlow says having a dog trained in detecting explosives will be an invaluable resource for the city.
“The dogs give us a lot of assistance helping us find fleeing suspects, find drugs, get them off the street, and now with the new resource of the new K9 I’ve acquired, she allows us to look for devices that could cause harm to individuals while they’re out trying to enjoy an event,” Harlow said.
Before big events in the past, Myrtle Beach police would borrow other local departments’ K9s to sweep an area for explosives. Now that the department has Goggles, that resource is available close by.
“If a bomb threat comes out here in the city, the response time for me to get to it is cut way down than somebody having to come in from the outside and from having to reach out to outside sources,” Harlow said.
Goggles and the department’s new apprehension K9, Bek, were both sworn into the force on Tuesday, bringing the total number of dogs in the K9 unit to five.
The Myrtle Beach Police Department plans to add more dogs as the need continues to grow.
Harlow says the K9s not only help protect the city, but also its police officers.
“We’ve added explosive detection dogs. We’ve added apprehension dogs, which will allow us to assist other officers from being put in situations where we can send the dog in to help prevent injuries to an officer,” Harlow said.
Goggles can assist other departments in emergencies too, which Harlow says will benefit the area around Myrtle Beach.