K9 Mac Sworn In As Newest Member Of Buffalo Grove Police Department

BUFFALO GROVE, IL — The Buffalo Grove Police Department has a new member. K9 Mac, a 15-month-old sable German shepherd, was sworn in at Monday's Buffalo Grove Village Board meeting.

Mac and his handler, Buffalo Grove Police Officer Shannon McMillon, recently graduated from an eight-week basic training and certification process at TOPS Kennel in Grayslake, according to the Village. The basic training included sessions on patrol techniques, handler protection and narcotics detection. In addition, K9 teams were trained in tracking and locating criminal suspects, endangered missing persons and conducting searches in different environments. Mac and McMillon will be trained in cadaver searches later this year.

Working with police dogs is nothing new for McMillon, who was a full-time trainer at TOPS Kennel prior to joining the Buffalo Grove Police Department in 2014.

According to the Village, Jody Page, of Page’s Healthy Paws, is donating Mac’s food. Future expenses related to the K9 unit, including medical care, will be funded between grant funding and asset forfeiture money seized from narcotics deals.

Buffalo Grove's K9 program was established in 1996 with K9 Grimm and former K9 Officer Dean Schulz. McMillon and Mac are the fifth K9 unit to join the department.