Radio Call Sign for LVMPD K9 Officers

[desert-cheetah]

Okay, I know the K9 squad goes by "K" or King, but what comes after that? Is it a single digit number? Double digit? Is there anything that goes ahead of "King" or is just King <number>?


Thank you very much!

 

[crazynova]

Each K9 unit has their own callsign. In the K9 callsign, there is not a shift identifier. They all start with K9. The remaining digit or digits is the officer's seniority in the unit. i.e. The mose senior K9 officer is K91, then K92, then K93, etc. K9 sergeants have the same 3 digit numerical callsign followed by a "K" to denote they are K9. The numerical call sign will be between 500 and 790ish for any sergeant.

 

[desert-cheetah]

That's very interesting. Thank you for explaining it to me. I'm used to "King <number>" and I guess I figured 'everyone' followed the same way of distinguishing K9 members.

Thanks!

 

[airsquad9]

Yeah, it's just a simple as CRAZYNOVA said. It'll sound like K9-1, K9-2, K9-3, etc... They don't use the "king" call signs here.

 

[desert-cheetah]

That does sound pretty simple. If you hear K9-1 (or whatever number) there's no doubt you're hearing about a K9 unit.

So let me ask you this. I was reading on the internet that LVMPD has 2 different K9 squads...one for building searches/suspect searches/etc and one just for drugs. Do they follow in line with the numbering by seniority too? So, let's say K9-5 is a search dog, can K9-6 be a drug-sniffing dog? In the Phoenix area, one squad does both sniffing and searching. Usually Belgian Malinois.

I'm asking because I'm writing a fictional story where the main character is an LVMPD K9 officer and there's only so much information you can find out on the internet.

Thanks!

 

[airsquad9]

Some are dual-dogs. They can search for suspects or do drugs. They use them most for searches though. Very little drug dog work. NHP also has a dual dog that they use mostly for drugs. Both use mixes of German Shepards or Malinois'...

 

[desert-cheetah]

Thank you, Airsquad9. THat is exactly what I wanted to hear! Hahaha. That'll teach me to take what I read on Wikipedia as "gospel" hahaha

 

[emtjohn]

Las Vegas Metro PD K-9

The link is to the website of The Friends of The LVMPD K9 unit. VERY informative. It looks like almost all of the officers carry 2 dogs with them. A "Patrol" dog to find suspects and a "Detection" dog for either narcotics or explosives. I kinda know one of the officers and he is currently carrying only 1 dog because his detector passed away. It also looks like you can click on the Meet the K-9 unit section and pretty much figure out the call signs. After the Sgts the first officer is K9-1 and so on down the line. The officer I know is in the appropriate place down the line for the unit number I hear him use on the radio. Check out the site. I bet it answers most if not all questions you may have.

 

[desert-cheetah]

Wow. Thank you! That is very cool. I will definitely check it out. That's too bad about that officer's detector dog.