Meet Sarge, Salida's New K-9 Officer

Salida's police department is excited to introduce their newest member: Sarge, a two-year-old Dutch Shepherd K-9 officer.

Getting the right K-9 officer for the team was no easy task. The Salida police department has been actively planning and preparing for a K-9 addition for the last two years. K-9 officers must be qualified for the specific needs of the area they serve and have a qualified handler and trainer to work with them on a near-daily basis.

After months of research and preparation, Salida's police team finally found their perfect match with Sarge. Sarge's handler, Officer Alec Coscarella, was a central figure in the planning process and worked hard to take care of the necessary promotion, fundraising and training. He and Sarge have formed a close bond and are excited to work together to serve Salida residents.

K-9 officers are trained in various areas and may have specific skills where they excel. Sarge is mainly trained to be an "odor dog" – to track and search for narcotics and important articles, and occasionally, missing persons. Therefore, it was crucial to the Salida police team to have a K-9 officer that was as friendly and approachable as possible. Sarge fits the bill perfectly.

Sarge and Officer Coscarella have only been working together for a few weeks but have already had some major successes as a team. For example, on April 24, Officer Coscarella and Sarge arrived at the scene of a hit-and-run accident. Sarge was able to track the driver, who was five blocks away, in an alley in the City's downtown area. The driver was safely detained, evaluated for injuries and then placed in custody for DUI.

More recently, on the night of April 29, the Salida K-9 Unit initiated a traffic stop on Highway 50 for traffic violations. Officer Coscarella subsequently suspected the presence of illegal narcotics and deployed Sarge to search the vehicle. Sarge alerted his handler to the driver's side of the car, where the officer found a cache of illegal substances that included over 30 grams of methamphetamine. The subject was arrested and ticketed for the traffic violations as well as drug charges.

Sarge loves meeting new people and is happy to approach and greet them when not busy on the job. He and Officer Coscarella look forward to many more opportunities to build relationships with Salida residents and continue to serve to make the City a safer, more secure place.