Manatee County Sheriff's Office conducts K-9, aviation training in Bradenton

The Manatee County Sheriff's Office today conducted a joint training exercise between its K-9 and aviation units.

Two K-9 department dogs took helicopter rides to and from the Emergency Operations Center, and upon landing, began searching for a staged suspect who had run across a field 20 minutes earlier and was in hiding. 

Sgt. Steve Chenard said the exercise is meant to get dogs used to riding in helicopters. Wind from the helicopter's rotor disrupts the suspect's scent so part of the practice was learning how far the dogs had to get away from the helicopter before they could pick up a scent.

Chenard said having dogs able to deploy from helicopters will allow the Sheriff's Office respond to incidents in East County faster, among other places in the county. Driving to Myakka City, for example, can take up to an hour, however a helicopter ride would only take about 15 minutes.

"This is going to allow our K-9 unit to have a much faster response time," Chenard said. 

K-9 department dogs are used for burglaries in progress, or other scenarios.