Local Hero Retires

A longtime member of the 's K-9 unit is retiring after a meritorious career that generated nearly $50,000 per year in asset seizures and earned him an award from the American Police Hall of Fame.

Bosco, an 11-year-old Belgian Malinois, has been a member of the K-9 unit since 2002. He and his handler, Officer Jason Larocque, have been partners since 2006.

“The first case Larocque and Bosco did together was an armed robbery,” said Acworth Police Lt. Curtis Endicott. “They tracked four armed suspects to an apartment duplex where they were arrested and subsequently charged with armed robbery of a pizza delivery driver.”

In a five year partnership, the pair have worked narcotics detection and suspect tracking for jurisdictions such as the Bartow County Sheriff's Department, the Marietta Police Department, the Georgia State Patrol and the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department.

Bosco, who was born in Holland in May, 2000, is a fully trained police dog who is able to search for the presence of drugs and to pick up the scent of a suspect and discover his location. He was trained to track suspects in Europe and was flown across the Atlantic to be trained to sniff out narcotics in Florida.

To train a dog to search for narcotics, the trainer finds a toy the dog likes to play with and sets it in a container with narcotics so that the smell of the drugs is transferred to the toy. The dog then associates finding narcotics with finding his or her favorite toy.

Bosco has been finding a lot of “toys” for various Georgia jurisdictions. According to Larocque, Bosco helped seize $14,000 in assets for the Kennesaw Police Department last year. This year in Acworth, Bosco has been responsible for the seizure of roughly $11,000 in cash and cars. All told, Bosco brings in $50,000 a year in drug asset seizures.

“I love getting drugs off the street,” said Larocque. “But Bosco's favorite thing is tracking people.”

Bosco was able to put his nose to the ground to search for a woman who was attempting to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. Bosco was able to track the woman through a wooded area and locate her in time for doctors to save her life. The doctors later told Larocque that if it weren't for Bosco, the woman would have surely died. For this action, Bosco was given a special award by the American Police Hall of Fame in Florida and was honored by the Acworth Police Department at the Jan 21, 2010 city council meeting.

Bosco is trained to attack any suspects he tracks that are actively resisting arrest, and to become passive when the suspect surrenders to police forces. On one occasion, Bosco took the opportunity to relieve himself on a suspect once the police had subdued him.

Policemen often get close with their partners, whether they work burglary, homicide or vice. Much the same can be said for the relationship between a K-9 officer and his or her handler.

“We have a father-son relationship,” Larocque said. Bosco lives at the Larocque family home when he is not working with his handler. Larocque admits to treating Bosco like one of his own children.

Bosco will be reassigned to an even more important job than protecting the citizens of Acworth: being the Larocque family pet. Most K-9 officers are placed in the permanent care of their handlers when their tour of duty is completed.

“He's really really friendly now,” said Larocque. “He does a lot of demos and is around kids more often.” In his old age he enjoys meet and greets and being petted, and has become more calm and laid back with his years. However, Larocque knows that Bosco will always have the heart of a K-9 officer.

“He can turn on the switch when he needs to.”