WARSAW -- Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office is moving closer to having a K9 assigned to the jail to search for contraband.

[caption id="attachment_75286" align="alignright" width="279"] Jim Smith[/caption]

The proposal, which started as a campaign idea by Sheriff Jim Smith last year, has gained momentum after a family, which operates a nonprofit intended to honor a family member who died in the line of duty offered to pay expenses associated with the acquisition of the dog.

The office has already found a dog and Smith said they believe it will be a good fit for the jail’s interior environment.

“We were going to move forward with this project, but having a partner in it and purchasing the dog is just a win-win,” Smith said.

“This dog we have will go to school for narcotics and tracking but not bite work. The thing I like about the tracking end of it is if you have a lost child or somebody leaves a nursing home – that kind of thing,” he said.

He said they were not ready to disclose the name of the group until all details are sewn up.

The dog and its assigned handler will still have to go through training so it could be weeks or months before the dog begins working in the jail.

The proposal surfaced last year after the sheriff's office reported several overdoses among inmates in recent years.

The sheriff uses K9s but has never had one assigned to the jail.

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