Eastern Michigan University's Department of Public Safety has a new officer. Nitro is a 1-and-a-half year old Belgian Malinois. His owner and partner, Bridget Bofysil, describes the K-9 officer as “agile” and “high energy.”
This new addition was featured in the Detroit News. Nitro has been trained in explosives detection, tracking, building searches, searching for items and assisting in taking down a suspect who is either fleeing or resisting arrest. The department acquired the dog for the sake of efficiency.
“He could search a building in 20 minutes, and it would take 3 officers an hour,” Bofysil said.
The military, Bofysil said, has tried to replicate this with humans but has not been successful. Bofysil started serving with dogs in 2009. Once her eight years in the army reserve was over, she moved to Florida. There, she began to work with dogs for the navy as a civilian contractor.
“It's honestly just something that I've always loved,” Bofysil said. “It's a passion that I saw somebody else do it and I was like, ‘that's really awesome.’”
Bofysil said she started training on her own and got the chance to get paid for it.
Bofysil has extensive experience with dogs. Her former dog was Nitro's mother. Bofysil and Nitro work in bomb training courses with two K-9 units from the UofM's police department on Tuesdays.
A police dog's career is typically eight to nine years. Nitro might not be the only K-9 officer for long, though. Bofysil said if this first four-legged officer is a success, DPS might get more dogs in the future.
