The presence of narcotics in a community can have an obvious impact on the quality of life. When drugs run rampant, other associated crimes increase. These can include increased burglaries, thefts, assaults, and weapon offenses. A rise in the use of heroin and fentanyl-laced heroin is becoming a growing concern for our state. Many overdoses and overdose deaths have occurred in our area. For that reason, the Dickinson Police Department is determined to take a proactive role in the war on drugs. One weapon in that war is the drug detection K-9.
The Dickinson Police Department received its first drug-detection K-9 in the summer of 2006. The first dog, “Duke”, has since retired. Other past dogs include “Buster”, “Talon”, “Samson”, “Niko”, “Gambit”, and "Norman". The current members of the department’s K-9 Unit are Sergeant Peters and K-9 “Kalo”, and Officer Haugen and “Frida”.
K-9 Kalo was purchased through Performance Kennels of Buffalo, MN after an outpouring of community fundraising support. Kalo is a male Belgian Malinois-German Shepard cross. He is a dual-purpose narcotic dog with patrol apprehension capabilities. He comes extensively trained on alerting to the odor of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin. Sergeant Peters is currently paired with K-9 Kalo.
They completed their initial certification in June of 2018. The K-9 Unit works closely with the Southwest Narcotics Task Force (SWNTF) to develop patrol tactics and share intelligence. Many arrests that the K-9 Unit makes end up helping the SWNTF by connecting the area drug ring. The Unit also assists the department’s School Resource Officers. The team is often called upon by the area schools to perform random drug sniffs on school property.
K-9 Frida began her tour of service in June of 2025 after spending 14 weeks of in-service training in Minnesota with her handler, Officer Haugen. The team ultimately certified for patrol use through the National Police Canine Association. K-9 Frida is a single-purpose narcotics detection dog and comes extensively trained on alerting to the odor of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, MDMA and heroin. She is a Shepherd/Malinois cross and was born in Slovokia.
In addition to narcotics detection, K-9 Frida can track human scent (i.e. fleeing suspects or missing people) as well as find discarded evidence.
The team trains together on a daily basis to keep their skills fresh. They are required to recertify annually with a national K-9 credentialing association.
Apprehension K-9s like Kalo are required to perform yearly certifications in addition to their narcotics certification. The video below gives you a front-row seat on the training officers perform in preparation for the event.
K-9 Donors
In early 2013, the Dickinson Police Department was set to retire two K-9s from service; K-9 Buster and K-9 Samson. A fundraising effort was conducted, and several area businesses and individuals donated to the K-9 team in 2013. As a result, two new narcotics dogs were purchased; K-9 Gambit and K-9 Niko. Both dogs are Belgian Malinois breed, and were purchased through North Iowa K-9. We would like to thank our donors for making our K-9 unit the strongest it has ever been!