BCSO adds 2 new dogs to K-9 unit

SUPPLY, NC (WWAY) — The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office has two new additions to its K-9 unit.

Star and Missy are 2.5-year-old Bloodhounds that are already making a difference in the community. They are more than your typical dog, they are officers with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s office.

“For someone who is missing, for a crime that may have been committed that deputies think they walked away from or ran away from but was still in the area, we could use the dogs to try to locate them,” Dep. Christopher Powell said.

For many years, the unit has two bloodhounds named Boonie and Clyde.

“But after Clyde passed away, it left a big void in our system,” Powell said.

Recently the void in the system was filled. The York County’s Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina donated Star and Missy.

The dogs spend four hours a week training plus any call outs the Sheriff’s Office receives.

“Myself or Dep. Paramelee will take off in an unknown direction, and he’ll say give me an hour, and I don’t know if he’s gone 200 yards or a mile,” Powell said. “I’d harness the dog up, get them ready, give them the command and let them go to the work and see what they are telling me.”

The dogs are expected to look and search for a person based on just a scent.

“There’s nothing in this world that could express a mother who has lost her child and has no idea where they are at, but if you are able to bring the dog out, the sense of relief on her face or the dad’s face, and then you call them and say, ‘We have your child in our hands.’ That’s the biggest enjoyment,” Powell said.

Dep. Powell says the dogs have already been assisting on calls, but say they have a lot left to learn.