TERRELL, Texas — The Terrell Police Department has implemented a new K-9 program with the recent graduation of Police Officer Travis Williams and his partner, BOLT, a Belgian Malinois.
TERRELL, Texas — The Terrell Police Department has implemented a new K-9 program with the recent graduation of Police Officer Travis Williams and his partner, BOLT, a Belgian Malinois.
In January 2018, Williams submitted a procurement proposal with the Terrell Police Department administration who, with great community support and approval of Chief Ken McKeown and City Manager Tory Edwards, began the process of implementing the program.
BOLT was chosen by Officer Williams, and other members of the command staff, in late April 2018. On May 25, 2018, Williams and BOLT completed their handler training and were set to begin work this week on patrol, narcotics investigations, and searches.
The program has been funded from current state drug asset forfeitures and is expected to continue to be a self-funded program from its own proceeds from forfeitures, according to Terrell Police Department Captain A.D. Sansom.
Initially, the project included retrofitting a current fleet police Chevy Tahoe for K-9 operations, the purchase of the dog, and handler training, according to Sansom.
BOLT was purchased and trained at Pace Setter K9 LLC, located in Liberty Hill, Texas, which has supplied most of the dogs and respective training sessions for surrounding agencies in multiple counties with a "great success record," stated Sansom.
"Other K-9s coming from the same training site have been extremely successful in the area and have high yield seizures of both drugs and cash," he said. "We are proud of Travis and our selection of this highly skilled service dog."