The newest members of the Montgomery County Police Department will never handcuff a suspect, prepare a search warrant or testify in court. Cali and Lila have just one job: tracking down firearms.
The department added the two gun-detecting dogs to its K9 roster earlier this month. The pair have been trained to recognize firearm scents, so they can find guns and expended shell casings, police said.
Cali is an 18-month old female German shepherd who was obtained from a Vermont shelter. Lila, a 2-year-old female German shepherd-Malinois mix, comes from a private vendor in Connecticut.
Police said the two will help officers in a variety of cases. The dogs are expected to assist with tasks that include: serving search warrants in cases in which weapons may be involved, finding firearms that suspects are believed to have disposed of and searching vehicles or buildings for gun-related evidence.
With the addition of Cali and Lila, the Montgomery police department’s K9 unit now has 29 dogs and 20 handlers, police said.
Twenty of the dogs are patrol dogs, and 13 of them have also been trained in narcotics detection. The unit also has five dogs trained to detect explosives and two bloodhounds.
