A new deputy was sworn in to the Cass County Sheriff’s Office – a purebred German Shepherd named Griggs.
Deputy Jake Murray met K9 Griggs earlier this summer and they attended handler training in Iowa together to be able to detect narcotics, search for missing people and fugitives, and apprehend criminals. Murray says K9 Griggs is a young dog with a lot of energy.
"He was a year and six months when I met him. His first introduction to me was, he came out of Paul's car, came up, jumped up in my face and then jumped up on the hood of my squad car. That's how we met," Murray says. "He's a very driven dog, he's a very good attitude dog, he has zero quit in him."
K9 Griggs has already been on some calls since he started working in mid-August.
"The state patrol did call for a sniff the other day and we went out there and I'm nervous, like, oh man - this is where it all comes to! We do our first loop around the vehicle, we go for our second loop - he head snaps on the b-pillar seam, sits, stares, and I'm like - WHOO! Jumping around on the side of the interstate. He did his job and he didn't let me down."
It costs about $18,000 to bring in a K9 officer. Funding for K9 Griggs was given by MLGC, a family-owned rural broadband company in Cass County.