HARTSVILLE, SC (WBTW) – The Hartsville Police Department has a new member on its team: an explosive detection K9.
Duke, a 3-year-old yellow lab from West Virginia, has been working alongside Officer Cara Spaziani since 2017. Officer Spaziani says Duke spent a total of 6 months training with her and he is nationally-certified. The two of them train at least once a week. As an explosive detection K9, Duke goes through advanced training to identify certain smells and odors. Officer Spaziani says, in the event of a threat, bomb, or explosion in the area, she and Duke could arrive on scene within minutes.
“We’re there in an instant. He knows what he’s doing,” she said. “We plan on keeping the community safe and if they need us, they call.”
One of the main purposes of having Duke on the team is to cut the amount of time it takes for police to respond to the scene of a threat. Otherwise, they would have to call an outside agency, like SLED or a team from another city, which could take anywhere between an hour or two.
“It would take 10 to 15 minutes to get to Hartsville, get briefed on the situation, make sure the scene is safe, and we’ll come in and do our sweep. It’s better than waiting for a SLED agency to come in. It takes them about two hours to respond where it takes me maybe 15 minutes,” said Officer Spaziani.
According to Officer Spaziani, Duke loves his job and takes it very seriously. He works 12-hour shifts and trains once a week. But sometimes, that’s just not enough for him.
“Sometimes we’ll train a couple of times a week because he likes doing it. He’s my best friend and the best partner I could ever have,” she said.
Duke goes with Officer Spaziani to every call, including routine traffic stops, alarm calls, and domestic calls. They both also
respond to calls in neighboring jurisdictions like Darlington when agencies request them and it goes through the chain of command.
Duke is one of four K9s at the police station. Each of them have a different specialty and role at the department.
