Canine police units constitute an indispensable component of law enforcement agencies, leveraging their exceptional sensory capabilities to accomplish tasks beyond human capacity, such as locating missing individuals.
Recently, a three-year-old K9 demonstrated remarkable valor by rescuing a lost child.
On January 31, the Auburn Police Department in Massachusetts received a report concerning a 12-year-old who had gone missing. The child had departed from home around 8:30 PM, and their whereabouts were unknown, as detailed in a departmental announcement.
Given the urgency of the situation, with freezing temperatures and no sign of the child, the department promptly deployed one of its highly trained K9 officers, Biza, to lead the search effort.
Biza, a hybrid breed of German Shepherd and Belgian Malinois, accompanied Officer David Ljunggren, her handler, as they arrived at the scene. Biza diligently trailed the scent of the child for a distance spanning two miles, prompting a convergence of officers to the designated area, where the child was promptly located.
The department reported, “The child has been successfully reunited with their family and is now safe.”
Considering the extensive scope of the search area, the assistance provided by Biza substantially expedited the process of locating the child. In the challenging winter climate, the prolonged search could have resulted in dire consequences had the child not been found promptly.
An Instagram post highlights Biza’s proficiency in snow tracking.
Biza has served as a valuable member of the Auburn Police Department’s K9 unit since August 2022, following her arrival from Germany and subsequent training with the Massachusetts State Police.
In the previous year, Biza and Officer Ljunggren successfully obtained certification from the North American Police Work Dog Association, accrediting Biza as a nationally certified patrol and narcotics K9.
In addition to locating missing persons, Biza is also adept at tracking down bad guys: in previous posts, the department wrote that the K9 helped track down a man involved in a domestic violence incident and a man who had been in a violent bar fight at a Chili’s, leading to their arrests.
A celebrity within the department, K9 Biza has also appeared on shirts, hoodies and a calendar.
