She's the newest member of the Buffalo Police Department and she comes with four legs.
On Thursday, Georgie was honored along with handler Officer Anthony Marshall in City Hall for their recent completion of a training course that prepared the dog for police work.
Georgie, a black German Shepherd, has already proven her worth having participated in a couple of recent arrests.
"What she did was run around the outside of the car to alert for any kind of narcotics," said Lt. Salvatore Losi, who heads the Buffalo Police K9 Unit. "She actually alerted on the driver's rear bumper and when the trunk was opened, secreted on the carpet underneath the bumper was approximately three to six ounces of marijuana that she found."
Losi explained that police dog training includes drug searches, tracking, aggression control work, and obedience. Most dogs, he said, defend their own homes but are otherwise reluctant to enter unfamiliar spaces. Doing so is part of the training.
Georgie was donated to the police by the Hyde Foundation, a charitable organization founded by the Hyde family, which owned the Mentholatum company for nearly a century. The company spent most of those years headquartered in Buffalo.
Mayor Byron Brown announced that the Hyde Foundation has committed to donating another police dog, based on the success of Georgie's training.
