A new officer has joined the ranks at the Oregon County Sheriff’s Office and he is ready to take a bite out of crime.
On Monday, Oregon County Sheriff Eric King announced the addition of a K-9 officer to his department.
On April 10, 2020, K-9 Amul, a German Shepard, and his handler, OCSO Chief Deputy Rich Matteson, completed two weeks of training at a special facility in Little Rock, Arkansas.
This addition now gives the Sheriff’s Office a K-9 unit within the department. “He will be used for tracking, search and rescue, and to combat the illicit drugs in our county,” King said.
The Sheriff’s Office was able to purchase Amul using funds from within the Sheriff’s Office sales tax budget and through other existing budget avenues due to an extraordinary working relationship with the Oregon County Commission. This allowed the Sheriff’s Office to acquire, equip, and implement this new program at no additional cost to the tax paying citizen of Oregon County.
In announcing the addition of Amul, King noted that the K-9 is “passive alert” trained. “This means he sits when alerted rather than barking and scratching,” King said. “This will allow us to use him in more public forums, such as our county schools.”
