K-9 opportunities and duties include: patrol and investigative assistance, narcotics enforcement, search and rescue, building searches, crowd control, high risk assistance, and securing schools and government buildings.

The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office created it's canine program in early 2004.  This is a brand new program for the Sheriff's Office and there was an extensive amount of work that was put into legal research, work criteria, and handler selection.

Monte and Cirrus were the first two dogs that were purchased.  Since that time we have added Atrej and Rico.

All of the St. Louis County Sheriff's Canines will be certified through the United States Police Canine Association (USPCA) as PD-1 Police Service Dogs.  In the near future all of them will be certified as Narcotic Detector Dogs.

Each dog that we acquire is heavily screened for temperament and attitude.  All of our canines work as police service dogs, but also live and interact with their respective handlers and the families of the handlers. 

Our canine teams interact with the community by giving demonstrations at schools and community events where the handler can answer questions and allow the public to learn more about the canine program.  Public support for the canine program has been outstanding. 
     
Our canines serve a variety of functions including searching for lost persons, criminal apprehension, narcotic detection, handler protection, and public demonstrations.  The biggest function for our teams so far has been apprehending felony criminals.  As of April 2006 our canine teams are responsible for 29 criminal apprehensions.