EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (PIX11) -- The Nassau County Police Department welcomed its newest members to the force on Tuesday.
EJ, Winchester and Karkho are the newest members of the K-9 unit. Chief, Scout and Patriot are the newest members of the mounted unit.
The department held its K-9 and mounted unit graduation, bringing its total number of dogs to 12 and horses to 10.
The dogs are all German shepherds from Europe. They underwent an intense selection process to be chosen, as well as six months of training.
“We use them for their nose. It’s special. They do things we just can’t do," said Robert Cohen, administrative supervisor for the K-9 unit.
“The biggest thing we want is that they have drive," Cohen said. "We want to make sure these dogs don’t stop searching. Sometimes they have to search for an hour for a missing kid or someone hiding from the police, so we need them to be driven.”
The same is true for the horses. The three new horses are from Long Island and trained for around six to eight months.
"Horses are herd animals, so you have to take them from being almost a herd, scared flight animal to standing their guard," said Justin Nash, commanding officer of the mounted unit.
“We look for strong traits. Health is a big aspect. A big part of it," Nash said. So we’ll try them out for three months, and if it's not working out, then we have to let them go. Patriot, the last horse we got, we had to go through seven horses before we selected Patriot.”
All of the animals were donated.
Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said the animals will have several tasks. The dogs will help with missing person cases, narcotics and bombs. The horses will help with traffic, noise, protests and crowd control.
"They are the partner of that police officer, that’s key. The dog or the horse I’m riding every day, that’s my partner so I have to make sure we’re working hand in hand," Ryder said.
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