K-9 Unit
The Beltrami County Sheriff’s K-9 unit was established to augment the Sheriff’s services to the community. Highly skilled and trained teams of handlers and Sheriff’s canines have evolved from the program and are used to supplement Sheriff’s Office operations to locate and apprehend criminal offenders.
Beltrami County Sheriff’s K-9’s have a rigorous training regimen to be prepared for their duties. They are also required to annually re-certify at a USPCA sponsored field trials event in the area(s) of their specialty.
Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office has utilized the services of a K-9 team(s) since 1992 when Deputy Randy Fitzgerald obtained K-9 Bandit. K-9 Bandit had a very successful career in Beltrami County being the first police canine in the area trained in criminal apprehension to work in Beltrami County and the surrounding area. Many of K-9 Bandits “customers” got to experience what a highly trained police canine is capable of doing. In the spring of 1999 Bandit retired from service to Beltrami County. Unfortunately, Bandit did not get to enjoy his retirement as it had been hoped; suffering from a debilitating injury and unfortunately was put to rest shortly after his retirement.
Fitzgerald’s desire to continue K-9 work quickly took off again after a successful fundraising campaign to obtain K-9 Tracer. Sgt. Randy Fitzgerald medically retired from service to the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office in January 2002 after not fully being able to recover from being injured in the line of duty in February 1992. K-9 Tracer also retired with Fitzgerald and is currently enjoying his retirement as a family pet.
A tradition of excellence in K-9 service continues today with the additions of K-9 Hunter(retired 7/2008) to handler Sgt. Ernie Beitel in 2000, K-9 Vosco to handler Deputy Dan Rockensock in 2006 and K-9 Kayos (pronounced chaos) to handler Deputy Jarrett Walton in spring 2007 and K-9 Chris to handler Deputy Jason Riggs in the winter of 2007.
Prior to receiving K-9 Vosco, Deputy Dan Rockensock had been assigned to K-9 Rocky. K-9 Rocky’s career tragically ended shortly after starting his law enforcement career when he succumbed to an allergic reaction (anaphylactic shock) to a bee sting. K-9’s Bandit and Rocky will always be remembered for their selfless, dedicated service to their handlers and to the citizens of Beltrami County.
K-9’s Vosco and Chris are “dual” trained. Meaning they are trained to the standards of PD I which generically means they are apprehension dogs and they are trained to the specifications of PD II as narcotic detection dogs. K-9 Kayos is a single purpose dog trained in PD II as a narcotic detector dog.
All of Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Teams have come to serve its citizens at virtually no cost to the taxpayers. All current and past funds used to obtain, train and maintain the K-9 teams were acquired through private donations and grants. The Nielson Foundation has been a significant contributor and supporter over the years and is part of the foundation that supports the Beltrami County Sheriff K-9 Unit. The Nielson Foundation and all those that have donated over the years cannot be thanked enough for dedication to our program.