Nashua Police Dept. obtains new K-9 vehicle

It’s official. The Nashua Police Department has a K-9 unit. The police department picked up their K-9 car last Monday and K-9 Officer Duke and his handler Officer Stephen Johnson are finally a complete team.As most know K-9 Office Duke is trained in the Narcotics Scent Wheel. Dukes sense of smell is at least 10,000 times more acute than ours. He is trained in finding marijuana, meth, heroin and cocaine.Although Duke has completed his training, Officer Johnson will have his tracking training completed by the end of March. Both officers will then continue to take training courses as they become available.  The Ford Explorer is fully outfitted for a K-9. The area behind the driver and passenger seat is an actual kennel. Officer Johnson has a door popper that, if needed, he can press and Officer Duke’s door will open. The Explorer is temperature regulated so that Officer Duke will never be too hot or too cold. The windows go down and up according to the inside temp. If too much time goes by without Officer Johnson attending the car, sirens will go off. Even though the car is a K-9 unit it can still be used as a transport unit.For the complete story see the 3/9/2017 Nashua Reporter.