Mayor Barlow announces new K9 Unit in Oswego Police Department
Mayor Billy Barlow announced today a new K9 Unit, under the direction of Chief of Police Phillip Cady, has been purchased and assigned to the Oswego Police Department. A 14 – month old Belgian Malinois named “K9 LUKE” is now officially the newest member of the Oswego Police Department. Luke and his handler, Officer Joshua Martin will be immediately attending the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Basic K9 handler school. The school will be an intensive 16 weeks of obedience, tracking, handler protection and search techniques. Once the basic school is completed, Officer Martin and Luke will attend a six-week explosive detection training as Luke will specialize in bomb sniffing and explosive detective duties.
“I’d like to welcome our newest member of the Oswego Police Department, Luke, to our department and to the Oswego community,” said Mayor Billy Barlow. “Adding a bomb sniffing dog to the Oswego Police Department will allow our police department to better serve our community and protect our residents during large community events and other dangers that can occur,” Barlow said.
Chief Cady stated that since we are the first international port on the Great Lakes from the St. Lawrence Seaway, we have a large amount of commercial and private vessel traffic. In addition to the steady traffic from the Port, Oswego hosts several public events that include Harborfest and Super DIRT week that draw large crowds. Luke will fill the need for certain types of response to these events should the need arise. K9 Luke will be utilized while searching for missing persons.
The Oswego Police Department has another K9 unit, 8-year-old Crixus, who specializes in narcotics detection and search techniques.
