K9 Unit

The Providence Police K-9 Unit is currently staffed with five K-9’s.  Three work within our Patrol Bureau and one in Homeland Security.  The patrol K9’s are trained at the Rhode Island K-9 Academy in narcotics detection, apprehension, tracking, and article/building searches and are extremely useful to police when they are looking for a criminal who has fled prior to police arrival. These dogs have been trained to use their keen sense of smell to search faster, safer and more accurately than the officers have the ability to on their own. Our explosive detection and weapon recovery K-9’s work frequently with other local and regional law enforcement partners conducting building sweeps and searches at major events. The K9 Unit is also a major part of our community policing philosophy and are very popular within the community and at events.

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