‘Buster the Deputy Dog’ reporting for duty…

‘Buster the Deputy Dog’ reporting for duty…

Sheriff’s Department’s new police pooch on the job

news@theeveningtimes.com

There is a new dog in town. Buster, a British black lab, is the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office’s newest police dog. Trained by Blue Streak in Jonesboro, the year-and-a-half year-old Buster pulls double duty, certified in searching for bombs and tracking missing people.

With just five days on the job, Buster debuted in front of a crowd of kids at a church in the county. Eighteen children at New Hope Baptist Mission in the Lakeshore mobile home park watched Buster come into the church house and almost immediately sniff out a “bomb” that his handler had hidden for the demonstration. With all the potential distractions, including kids in the room, Buster went straight to work, making Deputy Briggs Keeton proud.

“He can track a missing child in the woods,” said Keeton. “That is different than an apprehension dog that will run somebody down.”

Buster is a friendly dog.

With just five days on the job, Buster has already made a bunch of new friends. Lots of the kids got a wet lick and a tail wag celebrating the successful demonstartion.

“He’s never met anybody he didn’t like,” said Keeton.

Even when off duty, Keeton continues training buster with hide-and-seek.

“Like today when we were off, I put out two hides for him at the house,” said Keeton.

The Sheriff’s Department has used bomb dogs before, searching schools and business when bomb threats were made, and at big events in the region, after 9-11 and before local visits by President Bill Clinton.

Keeton said it is important to have a properly-certified bomb dog just so the deputy can have confidence in giving the all clear for a building.

“We wanted to make sure we had a certified trainer,” said Sheriff Mike Allen.

“Buster spent 5 weeks in Jonesboro to get certified.

He is serving, certified and on the job and ready to go.” This isn’t the first canine for Keeton. He had a Belgium Malinois working the streets for 10 years. The county has another one of those, working now with Darrell Prewitt. That dog, Argos, has different duties, including sniffing out drugs and running down the bad guys. Argos had a good first week on the job, too, finding drugs in a suspicious vehicle in West Memphis.

Buster and Argos have got the county covered, eight paws on the ground.

By John Rech