The Michigan State Police, Canine Unit has a long and distinguished history that dates back to 1960 when Tpr. Richard Abbott and his dog "Jocko" became the first official canine team to serve the department. The department soon realized the effectiveness of having a canine team in the field and the program expanded to four additional teams the following year.

Over the years, the Canine Unit has continued to develop and expand to an average of 24 teams strategically located around the state. To maintain the edge in today's changing world of law enforcement, our canine teams continually work and train to sharpen their skills and keep abreast of current trends in public safety canine services.

Canine Organizational Structure

The Canine Unit is part of the Field Support and Aviation Section, Field Operations Division. Lieutenant Richard Hetu is the Commanding Officer of the unit and he is assisted by Tpr. David Yount, Canine Trainer. These officers work together to monitor canine activity in the field, develop and implement various training programs, select and place dogs, develop and administer unit policy, assign priority calls and special details, and coordinate search and rescue missions.  In the event you have a question regarding the Canine Unit, these officers can be reached at telephone numbers (517) 322-5812, or (517) 322-5810.

Function of Departmental Dogs

With over 3,000 calls for service per year, the Michigan State Police Canine Unit is one of the busiest in the state of Michigan. This is due in large part to the wide variety of services offered. All the dogs are trained to track and apprehend criminal suspects, locate lost or missing persons, conduct building searches, and can locate stolen property or articles discarded by criminal suspects. Along with these functions each dog is also trained as a detector dog as well.

Explosive detector dogs are used to search for explosives on bomb threats in a wide variety of circumstances. In addition, whenever the President or other dignitaries visit Michigan, our explosive detector dogs assist federal agencies during the visit to ensure the safety of the visiting dignitary.

Our narcotic detection dogs can search for illegal drugs on traffic stops, drug raids, prison searches, and nearly any other place where drugs can be hidden or conveyed.

The Canine Unit also has cadaver dogs that are capable of locating buried or submerged drowned victims while working in conjunction with various underwater recovery teams. These dogs can also be used in recovery operations at natural disasters or homicide investigations.

The Canine Unit has one accelerant detection team utilized in suspect arson investigations.