Over a half-dozen school districts in North Central Washington have renewed the services of Chelan County’s drug detection dog.
On Monday, the Chelan County Commissioners officially contracted for K9 Gambit and his handler, Deputy Jacob Lewis, to assist local schools in their efforts to detect drugs and other contraband.
Commissioner Kevin Overbay says the districts’ most recent contract with the County expired in June, and the renewal was done after a need was seen for the dog’s continuing assistance.
“We were getting feedback from our school resource officers (SRO) and the schools themselves who were both telling us that they have been seeing an increase in narcotics on campus. The SROs have been confiscating contraband from students almost on a daily basis, primarily cannabis and cannabis-based vaping products.”
Overbay says the school districts were specifically interested in the services of K9 Gambit because of the dog’s ability to detect cannabis.
“A lot of times with regular law enforcement K9s, they’re not trained to detect cannabis. But K9 Gambit is trained to find cannabis. So where other K9s would not be able to be utilized for that purpose, we can actually utilize him for those purposes in different areas.”
Gambit, a four-year-old Border Collie mix, has been with the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office since last fall.
The County contracted for Gambit’s services with five school districts in Chelan County, including Wenatchee, Cascade, Lake Chelan, Manson, and Entiat, as well as two in Douglas County – Waterville and Bridgeport.
The new contract will be in effect through 2027.
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Gallery Credit: Ethan Carey
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