There’s about to be a new (deputy) sheriff in town.
Concerns about delays in responding to bomb threats and improving security throughout Luzerne County have prompted the sheriff’s office to add a new member — a 1 year old black Labrador retriever named Hylee.
“We’ve had a number of instances where we’ve needed an explosive detection K-9 to come in,” Sheriff Brian Szumski said. “Believe it or not, there’s not a huge amount of them in our area. There’s a lot of narcotics detection in our area. There’s not a lot of explosives detection.”
Years ago, the office had several K-9s trained to sniff out explosives, drugs and human scents. But those dogs were phased out after the county switched to home-rule government, Szumski said.
Since then, however, the need for locally owned police dogs has become apparent.
Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo said Szumski submitted a proposal in December 2023 seeking to establish a K-9 unit to address “the growing need for enhanced security, measures in our community and recognition of the unique capabilities that a dedicated explosives detection K-9 Unit can bring to the county.”
A police dog in the sheriff’s office would reduce response times, enhance search and investigation capabilities and improve public safety as well as collaboration with other agencies, the proposal suggested.
The need for a local K-9 was further demonstrated during the general election in November, when the Penn Place Building in Wilkes-Barre, which houses the Luzerne County Bureau of Elections, was briefly evacuated due to a bomb threat.
While the threat turned out to be a hoax, it created a delay while Luzerne County officials asked the Scranton Police Department to send down its bomb dog, Attyro.
“Luckily we were able to bring them down,” Szumski said. “But we saw the need to have one on site and basically to have one available to us. It’s also something that our community as a whole really needed.”
Crocamo echoed those sentiments, saying that having a K-9 on hand locally will help to improve security for the county.
“Sadly, we live in a volatile world, it is crucial to be proactive in safeguarding our staff, residents, and assets,” Crocamo said. “One effective way to enhance this protection is through the use of an explosive detection canine, which can significantly bolster our security measures and ensure a safer community for all.”
Hylee is now undergoing a 10-week program at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia, where she is learning to detect substances such as ammonium nitrate and gunpowder, Szumski said.
“That’s all they do,” he said of the center, which is part of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The center, which opened in 2012, says its mission as a national research and development center for detection dogs was inspired by the search and rescue dogs that responded to the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“They are one of the premier dog trainers, and they came highly recommended to us by other agencies that use dogs,” Szumski said.
The sheriff said he was inclined to get a black Lab over a more traditional police dog such as a German shepherd or Belgian Malinois because they are more approachable for the general public.
“Once we saw that a black lab was available, we were more interested in that because of the friendliness of the breed and the way they present themselves,” he said.
When Hylee officially begins working for the office on May 12, she will be handled by Cpl. Mike Flynn, who is currently assigned to deliver civil court paperwork. Szumski said Flynn will continue that work with Hylee as his sidekick.
“The K-9 will actually be out there in the community with him while he’s serving processes,” he said, noting that Hylee will also begin living with Flynn full-time. “There’s a pretty significant bond that forms between the handler and the dog. That’s why they work so well together and that’s why they train so long together.”
Hylee and her training presented an initial cost to the county of about $4,000, a figure that could increase if she gets “add on” training to prepare her to search for items such as clothing or other belongings, he said.
Szumski noted that in addition to the training, the cost of maintaining a dog includes everything from food and bowls to veterinary bills and equipment upgrades.
As a result, the Luzerne Foundation created the Luzerne County Sheriff’s Department K-9 Fund to help with expenses. The foundation’s website says all money raised via the K-9 fund will go toward veterinary care, food, grooming supplies, medical kits, specialized equipment and other necessary resources.
“Everything is very expensive. Anyone who has a pet knows that,” Szumski said.
But the cost of the office’s newest member will be worth it, allowing for deputies to conduct regular sweeps of the Luzerne County Courthouse and other buildings to improve safety, he said.
The addition will also be a positive step forward for the office, he said.
“It’s a big thing. It offers another opportunity for deputies to do something different in their career,” Szumski said. “We’d like to have those opportunities available to the deputies, but also to offer the community those resources. Because a lot of departments are in the same boat — budgets are getting cut everywhere and it’s tough. But services shouldn’t suffer because of that. So we want to make sure we’re offering the most we can.”
