GALION — The Galion Police Department swore in a K9 at the Galion City Council meeting Tuesday night.
The dog, a Belgian Malinois named Basco, arrived in September when he was just more than one year old, and underwent many weeks of training.
Basco came from Tri-State and was originally from the Netherlands. When the Galion police officers were at Tri-State, Basco had just landed not long before when they saw him.
It was decided that the officers wanted a K-9 in Galion, and once they got funds figured out, Basco’s handler went back to Tri-State and found out that Basco was still available and they immediately latched on to him and brought him to his new home.
Basco’s handler, Officer Tim Johnson, said Basco’s purpose is to protect him and the other officers when they are on duty and he can be a very aggressive dog then, but when he is not on duty, he is very friendly and will approach everyone to be pet and will lick them.
Galion Police Chief Brian Saterfield said Basco is exactly what they wanted for a police dog because they wanted to be able to have him out at public events and have kids be able to approach and pet him but said Basco also is very good at what he has been trained to do.
Johnson and Basco’s working hours currently are 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. as those are considered the prime hours for crime. He already has been out on several search warrants for the department.
Basco is trained in sniffing narcotics, tracking, building searching, biting, amongst other things.