LOVINGTON, N.M. — At the end of 2021, the Lovington Police Department shut down their K-9 program.
“The laws in the state of New Mexico regarding marijuana had changed and these dogs had been originally trained to detect marijuana, along with other narcotics. So you can’t untrain a dog to hit on marijuana. So for those reasons and financial reasons at that time we stopped the program and the dogs were retired to their handlers.” said David Miranda, Police Chief of the Lovington Police Department.
But because of funding received at the end of last year, now in 2023, the program has been re-established.
“Because we received private, state, and city funding at the end of last year we were able to acquire two new K-9s in the beginning of this year, which are currently deployed and in service.” Miranda continued.
K-9 supervisor and school resource officer Robert Still serves alongside one of the new K-9s, Loki.
He’s glad to be helping revitalize the program.
He feels that K-9 units help police departments better serve their communities.
“So to have a K-9 unit in the police department it helps officers to have an extra tool to utilize to locate not only narcotics but also if there’s any fleeing suspects, fleeing felons in the area. The dogs can be utilized in that respect to help find and track down anybody.” said Robert Still, K-9 supervisor and school resource officer for Lovington PD.
While there are only two K-9s for now, there is a chance in the future that more will be added to the unit.
Lovington PD is just glad to have the program back and can’t wait for the public to see what the K-9s are capable of.