“It just happened to be at the right time” Introducing the Jackson Police Department’s new K-9 officer

JACKSON, Mo. (KBSI) – Meet Riggs, the Jackson Police Department’s new K-9 officer. 

Assistant Chief Alex Broch says the stars aligned to get Riggs onto the force, with the legalization of recreational marijuana, combined with the impending retirement of the department’s previous K-9, who was trained to detect marijuana, and the K-9 Replacement Grant from the state’s Department of Public Safety. 

“It just happened to be at the right time where this new amendment happened,” Broch said. “[The previous K-9] was trained in detection of marijuana, so through this process, we were able to retire him out soon and get the new K-9 rolling.” 

Riggs is trained in tracking, criminal apprehension, and narcotic detection, but not marijuana location. 

“A K-9 can’t obviously tell us what they’re smelling, so if they’re trained in marijuana, and they’re detecting or alerting on a vehicle, we can’t distinguish between what narcotic is in there,” Broch said.

The 14-month-old German Shepherd has only been on the force since June 13th, and it didn’t take Riggs long to get acclimated to his new role because he was forced into action right away. 

“His first day on actual duty on the road with his handler, another officer had a traffic stop. Riggs was called over. He was able to detect and be able to locate methamphetamines,” Broch said.

Not only is Riggs already very good at his job, his handler Branden McSpadden says he’s also a very good boy. 

“He’s a very social dog. He likes to meet everybody,” McSpadden said. “He’s not aggressive or anything like that.” 

But he is still a puppy, and Broch said Riggs’s energy is no different than any of their previous K-9’s. 

“When we get all these K-9’s, they’re equally the same amount of energy,” he said.