“Kona means lady in Hawiian so we thought she’s still a lady but it sounded more like a strong name since she’s still going to be looking in law enforcement she’s still a lady, that’s were Kona came along,” Officer Joe Riley, Kona’s handler said.
Kona is 5 months old and is the first k9 officer for the department in 3 years.
She’s also the first chocolate English Labrador retriever the stations had.
“With a lab we can teach it to be friendly, teach it to be kid friendly,” Linton Police Chief Troy Jerrell said. “It can socialize with other people; you have no other worries than any other dog. So, at the time that she gets older and her drives not there to do the job no longer she’d make a good fit for anyone else.”
“The more I started working the drug side of law enforcement the more I started to realize that a K-9 is tool,” Riley said. “She’s active and exciting and loves to play with other dogs and kids. She’s a lot more active than any dog I’ve ever had.”
Officer Joe Riley is Kona’s handler. He’s been with the department for two years and always wanted to go into narcotics.
But before Kona came to the force, officer riley had to rely on help from surrounding department K-9 units.
Now Kona will make finding illegal substances easier.
“There’s always a need for one with drugs and things going on these days and K-9 are great tools to use out here when we are trying to find drugs,” Jerrell said.
The department is looking to raise roughly 12 thousand dollars to get Kona road ready which includes training and equipment for officer Riley’s car.
Currently they are about 2 thousand shorts from their goal.
“They seem to be doing really great so far and see nothing but success in their future,” Jerrell said.
I did ask if there would be more 4 legged officers patrolling the streets in Linton.
Chief Jerrell said for now they are content with Kona but are not ruling anything out in the future.
If you would like to help the Linton Police Department you can click here for their Go Fund Me Page or click here to help by purchasing a t-shirt.
