K9 police dogs are an invaluable asset to any law enforcement agency, utilizing their extraordinary senses to accomplish tasks beyond human capability, such as tracking down missing individuals. In a recent incident, a 3-year-old K9 emerged as the hero after successfully locating a missing child.
On January 31, the Auburn Police Department in Massachusetts received a distress call regarding a missing 12-year-old. The child had departed from home around 8:30 PM, and their whereabouts remained unknown, as per the department’s announcement. Given the urgency of the situation, with freezing temperatures setting in and the child still unaccounted for, the department swiftly deployed one of their most skilled officers: K9 Biza.
Biza, a German shepherd/Belgian malinois mix, arrived on the scene with her partner and handler Officer David Ljunggren. Biza tracked the child’s scent for two miles, and officers converged on the area, where the child was found shortly after.
“The child was reunited with their family and is safe,” the department wrote.
Given the expanse of the search area, it would’ve likely taken the officers much longer to locate the child without Biza’s help. And given the harsh, freezing winter conditions, things could’ve been bad if the child wasn’t found in time.
An Instagram post shows that Biza is trained in snow tracking.
Biza has been an Auburn Police Department’s K9 since August 2022, when she was brought over from Germany and underwent training with the Massachusetts State Police.
Early last year, Biza and Officer Ljunggren completed their North American Police Work Dog Association certification, making Biza a nationally certified patrol and narcotics K9.
