In this episode we talk with Sergeant Mike Kilian of the K-9 Unit. In his 33 years in law enforcement he’s seen it all, from a victim disposed of in a wood chipper (see, that doesn’t just happen in Fargo) to a nail-biting SWAT standoff which the barricaded subject promised would be a violent “Waco on the Withlacoochee.” Sergeant Kilian talks about his origins as a naive jail deputy and his time in patrol, SWAT, and as a detective in Narcotics, Burglary, and Homicide before he joined the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit at the advanced age of 40. He talks about the challenges of working at a rural agency like the Pasco or Citrus County Sheriff’s Office compared to his current career in densely populated Pinellas County, and about how law enforcement has changed in the last three decades. And of course we talk about his K-9 partner Eddie, the lovable, high energy German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix who is certified in apprehension and explosives detection. Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office K-9s are trained completely differently than they are at many other agencies, and the result is a team of good-natured dogs who make successful apprehensions with significantly fewer bites.

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