The St. Joseph County Jail added two new K-9 officers Tuesday to deter drug smuggling, violence and escape attempts by inmates.
The department held a press conference at the jail Tuesday to introduce Thor and Apollo. The 16-month-old German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mixes, born in Poland, recently completed training in Berrien County with their officer handlers, Brent Rose and James Greenfield.
They replace Maverick, a K-9 who was trained on drug detection but will now work elsewhere for the department because his handler officer was promoted from the jail to road patrol. In addition to drug sniffing, Thor and Apollo are trained on searching, should inmates escape, and aggression, should they act up in the jail.
To demonstrate for reporters, Sheriff Bill Redman put on a protective suit and let the dogs attack him in the jail lobby. Redman said their main purpose will continue to be drug detection.
"On top of that, they do have the search skills in case we were to, God forbid, have a jail escape," Redman said. "We're seeing what can happen in New Orleans recently so we want to try to be more proactive and try to prevent that."
