The Dubois County Sheriff’s Office has announced the retirement of K9 Karma.
K9 Karma has been with the Sheriff Office since 2014. Karma, who is a 9-year-old German Shepard, was assigned to Deputy Jesus Monarrez after their graduation/certification from Alfa Canine Training in 2014. Deputy Monarrez was recently promoted to the rank of Sergeant and is now the Sheriff Office Detective. K9 Karma will be retiring to a simpler life of playing and chew toys finishing out her years as a family pet with Detective Monarrez. In their years of service to the Sheriff Office K9 Karma, and K9 Judge, retired earlier, were involved in over 500 Deployments, recovering Thousands of Dollars of Drug money, countless syringes/pipes/paraphernalia, over 12lbs of Marijuana, multiple illegal Handguns, over 4lbs of Methamphetamine, multiple tracked suspects, over 2lbs of Synthetic drugs, cocaine, over 2lbs of heroin, prescription medications, and 5 meth labs.
The Sheriff Office K9’s have been involved in countless traffic stops and details assisting other law enforcement agencies in Dubois County. Judge and Karma are also known for their public appearances in the community at our schools, factories, businesses, churches, and community clubs for demonstrations and community functions. With the ever-increasing presence and use of drugs in our community, as well as violence and property crimes, the Sheriff Office would like to keep the K9 program viable and alive.
A new dual-purpose dog will greatly expand the Sheriff Office capabilities, allowing it to quickly detect the controlled substance in places like schools and businesses, as well as vehicles. The new Sheriff K9 will be used during traffic stops, consent searches, searches related to arrest, as well as searches pursuant to a search warrant. The K9 will continue to increase the efficiency of the sheriff office. A trained K9’s acute sense of smell can help it search a location for drugs in a fraction of the time it would take an officer. Furthermore, the K9 will also be trained to assist in the tracking of lost persons and the apprehension of fleeing suspects.
Due to county budget constraints, the Sheriff’s Office must seek donations from community members, civic groups, and businesses in order to afford the continuing costs and purchasing of a new K9 and equipment. All donations will be put towards the purchase and training of the new K9, and to aid the Sheriff’s Office in the fight in illegal drug activity for our community, Dubois County. Any and all donations will be helpful in our efforts, please contact Deputy Clint Gogel (812-639-9950).
