Super Police Dog, Innovative Company Partnering To Find Many Missing Persons In Bergen County
MAYWOOD, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- It's as if she has no Kryptonite. A super-dog has already rescued dozens of people in Bergen County all on her own.
But as CBS2's Alice Gainer found out on Monday, this police canine is getting some help to track down even more.
She's a vivacious success with a hero nose. Three-year-old Remi is saving the day one sniff at a time.
"Remi is a bloodhound, which means she is scent-specific. She's able to lock the human scent into her nose and trail that scent to its conclusion," Maywood police Det. Chris Nichols said.
Nichols is Remi's handler. He said last year alone she located 75 missing people in Bergen County.
"Sometimes these scenarios, that the missing person has been gone for a long period of time or there's a contamination, will require a bloodhound," Nichols said.
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But her nose is only as powerful as the scent article she uses to track a missing person. Without that, it could be impossible to find them.
"It goes through your head every single time, boy, I hope there is a good scent article," Nichols said. "Because if there's not, there's not going to be much we're going to be able to do."
Now that the Maywood Police Department has partnered with the company Find'em Scent Safe, which makes a do-it-yourself human scent collection kit, police are hoping that families can prepare by saving a scent immediately.
"We are hoping that it's an insurance policy, that in a time of need there is not going to be a delay," Maywood police Capt. Terence Kenny said.
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The kit has everything needed to preserve a scent for up to a year. It is strongly recommended for families of people with Alzheimer's or dementia and with children with autism, or anyone prone to going missing.
"We tell you where to collect scent, which I think is super-important for a families, because on a child we like the armpits, and if it's an adult, we don't because they have deodorant on," Find'em Scent Safe founder Coby Webb said.
The Maywood Police Department is passing the kits out for free to certain residents, and then showed Gainer how easy it is for a bloodhound to track a person using it. Within minutes, Remi was able to sniff out one officer.
"Just like with anything, technology could have issues sometimes, so we go back to the tried-and-true way of give it to the dogs," Nichols said.
It proves man's best friend may still work better than modern technology.
Police officers said it's best to store the safes in your freezer.
For more information on them, please click here.
