New Decatur City School SRO has a nose for her job

Maddie is a two-year-old tail wagging, slurpie kissing bundle of love who never meets a stranger.

She’s the new k-9 partner of school resource officer Mike Landrum.

“Maddie is what we would refer to as a detector dog,” Landrum said

And like other dogs, she had a big price tag, “Decatur Police Department spent over 7 thousand dollars for Maddie and mine training,” added Landrum.

Some of that money was raised by the citizens police academy, and a private security company.

Landrum said the school system will foot the bill for food and vet bills.

Supervisor of school system safety, Phil Hastings, says Maddie is the first full time k-9 SRO in Alabama, with a nose for drugs and more.

“Contraband certainly would include illegal drugs, alcohol, black powder, which could be used in weapons or fireworks,” Hastings said.

He said she can also detect items legal, but against school rules, “For example certain medications, our students can’t just carry their medications with them, whether it’s Tylenol or some medication a doctor gives them.”

He adds that Maddie will be able to educate younger students in the classroom.

And she has the right combination of a friendly personality, temperament and intelligence for her job.

By Bobby Shuttleworth

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