New K9s, deputies join WCSO

The White County Sheriff’s Office recently added a pair of four-legged members – and their deputies.

Deputy Erin Thomas, with K9 Henzo, and deputy John Thomas, with K9 Skuter, give the WCSO a dual-purpose K9 teams. Henzo is a 6-year-old Belgian Shepherd, and Skuter is a 4-year-old German Shepherd. Both dogs are used for drug detection and tracking, with Skuter also being an apprehension dog, said Sheriff Rick Kelley.

“We purchased Henzo from Riverdale Police Department, and we purchased Skuter from Clayton County Police Department.,” Kelley said. “Both dogs were purchased using money from our seized assets account. We had some donations from the community that donated some money for equipment for whatever we might need to buy for them. So no tax dollars were used to purchase the dogs.”

The sheriff’s office has been looking at getting some K9s for a while, Kelley said.

“It’s been a goal of ours to get a K9 on our patrol division. Back around the first of the year, we ran into the Thomases, got to talking to them, and they were looking to relocated out of Atlanta up here, so it kind of worked out where we got two,” he said. “It’s worked out good for us because we’re able to put one on both rotations, so we should have one every day in service. Those dogs, they’re a valuable tool for our patrol deputies to have access to while they’re on their shifts.”

Erin Thomas said the reason they came up here was because they wanted to get away from the metro area.

“It’s a smaller community up here, more family-oriented, plus it’s beautiful,” she said. “I think it’s going to be a better, more conducive environment for our dogs and for our family.”

Erin Thomas said she’s had Henzo for three years. and John Thomas said he has had Skuter for four years.

Kelley added that the deputies are filling existing positions, so new ones were not created and budgeted for.

“The deputies will answer calls for service just like any other deputy,” Kelley said. “They’re going to assist all the other deputies in combating our drug problem that we have.”

Kelley said that other deputies have been asking when the dogs were coming and that the process took a couple of months because of the different agencies involved. But they started around June 1 and recently completed their training, so both K9s are in service.

“They’re excited that they’re here, and we’re excited to have them,” Kelley said. “We got two well-trained, high quality deputies added to the staff here as well, so it’s a plus for us.”