The Greenville Police Department is continuing to beef up its reinforcements.
At Tuesday’s regular city council meeting, Chief Marcus Turner introduced the newest addition to the department — Officer Amor — a 3-year-old K9.
“We were able to go to Texas and make a purchase of a K9 known as Officer Amor,” said Turner before yielding to Investigator McGonagill to discuss Officer Amor’s capabilities.
“K9 Amor has multiple disciplines — he is a narcotics dog first and foremost on marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin,” said McGonagill. “He is secondly a patrol dog.”
K9 Amor’s patrol abilities encompass apprehension, building clearance, open area searches, vehicle searches, and “sniffs around vehicles,” even during traffic stops for narcotics.
“The apprehension part of the patrol dog phase is if a felon decides to try and run after being told three times not to, after which a certain saying will be said and the dog will be released and he is very, very good at his job,” McGonagill highlighted.
Vice Mayor and Ward 1 Councilman Al Brock, who presided in Mayor Errick Simmons’ absence, asked when was the last time the department actually had a K9 in the department.
Turner said it had been nearly a decade since GPD had one.
“It brings us closer into the 21st-century and we’re excited to have him. We’re carefully making all the provisions around him and we just want to thank the council for seeing the opportunity and allocating the means for us to go ahead and make this addition to the police department,” he added.
