The Canton Police K-9 Unit

The Canton Police K-9 Unit was established in 1985 and is the parent agency of The Police K-9 Association.

In 1985 the City of Canton decided to put forth a K9 Unit, with the support of city council along with then Mayor Sam Purses.
In the process of researching canine units across the United States, our administration made contact with the K-9 trainer for The Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department, Dave Haskins. With Dave's help the City began a selection process for handlers and began to establish the canine unit.

Class #1 began April 29th, 1985 with six Canton Police Officers in training. Almost immediately upon graduating Class #1 made a  forever impressionable impact on the streets of the City and within the police department as an impeccable tool to aid law enforcement. After a few times with K-9 teams responding to and apprehending criminals involved in B&Es, burglaries, etc. those types of crimes began to decrease.

The criminal element within the City of Canton soon realized they could no longer hide. Officer related injuries also began to decrease as the intimidation of a patrol dog usually made criminals think twice before fighting with Officers attempting to take them into custody.

Officers within the department also saw how beneficial a canine unit could be in making everyone's job safer and easier to perform daily duties. One such way is that a properly trained K9 team could more efficiently and effectively search a building in half the time it would normally take ten officers and with a decreased chance of injury to the officers.

The Canine Unit to say the least, was an "overnight success"

More to come soon!