WINNIPEG - The Manitoba First Nations Police Service says they’ve hired Manitoba’s first Indigenous K9 handler, as a new recruit graduates from an intensive training program to sniff out crime.
Cst. Travis Assiniboine has been chosen to work with Zion, a Belgian Malinois, following a competition at the MFNPS Opaskwayak detachment. With the help of the Winnipeg Police Service, Assiniboine has taken a 16-week training program at the Office of the Fire Commission training facility in Brandon, as his four-legged partner K9 officer learns drug and firearms detection, search and rescue, and suspect apprehension.
Both Zion and Cst. Assiniboine are being deployed to Opaskwayak Cree Nation. Zion is the force’s third K9 member, with the first previously provided by the WPS before that dog’s handler left the program.
What do you think?