Sand Mountain Reporter

The Albertville Police Department K-9 unit is at full force once again with one certified and trained team on each shift.

K-9 officer Joey Skaggs and his dog Nitro along with K-9 officer Greg Plunkett and Bok completed training the first week of March, said Police Chief Benny Womack. The handlers trained for 12 weeks in Huntsville, the chief said.

Skaggs is a veteran handler who trained with the department’s newest dog Nitro, who replaced the retired Kilo. Plunkett is the department’s newest handler.

The other two teams are Sgt. Thomas Ball and Kaiser and Josh Isbell and Mako.

Womack said the K-9 unit is a key element in his department.

“Their primary purpose is narcotics detection,” Womack said. “They do an outstanding job of that. They’ve got noses that are much better trained than a human being.”

The chief said the dogs are used every day and not just for narcotics detection.

“There have been large of amounts of money seized because of these K-9s,” Womack said. “There have been situations where handlers have been protected, and situations where individual suspects that have committed serious crimes have been apprehended.”

The chief said the dogs also aid other departments.

“There have been many times they have been used in cooperation with other agencies,” Womack said. “We have a good enough working relationship with other cities that do not have them, that they know they can call us if they need our K-9s, especially for narcotics detection.

“With the particular problem we have in this area with drug traffickers, they are a very easily accessible resource to try to put a stop to a lot of that.”

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

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