Boone County Fire Protection District welcomes explosive detection K-9

The Boone County Fire Protection District announced on Friday that a new team has been added to help with explosives detection.

The new team, K-9 Luke and Captain Martina Pounds, joined K-9 Brass and Officer Joan Haaf from the University of Missouri Police Department as an explosives detection team.

The teams will work closely with the local bomb squads doing sweeps of many local venues before fans and visitors arrive.

K-9 Luke was trained by the Boone County Sheriff’s Department and the Boone County Fire Protection District. He is a 3-year-old German Shepherd mixed breed and has been conditioned to detect multiple different explosives compounds and residues.

Pounds and K-9 Luke completed the basic K-9 training course with the sheriff’s department’s K-9 training program and became certified in tracking and explosives detection through the Missouri Police Canine Association in September 2017.

K-9 Luke and Pounds have been assisting local and regional law enforcement partners during events on the MU Campus, venues in Jefferson City and other events around the county.