Fort Madison police add first ever K9 unit

FORT MADISON, Iowa (WGEM) - Wednesday was a historic day for the Fort Madison police department as they welcomed their first ever K9 unit to the force.

Norik, a two-year-old German Shepard, and his handler Officer Greg Warosh arrived in Fort Madison late Wednesday morning for their first day of work together.

Chief Mark Roholoff said when it comes to deterring crime and increasing overall response times, Norik is a great addition to the force.

Warosh said Norik is a dual purpose dog, trained to not only sniff out drugs and other items during searches and traffic stops but also track both suspects and missing people.

“We would get calls that a known suspect was last seen going a certain direction and we had nothing to go off of, we had no tracking capabilities whatsoever to locate the individual and that goes for if we would get calls for kids lost in cornfields or in the woods,” he said.

Warosh said they used to rely on the Lee County Sheriff’s office for help when they needed a K9 unit.

But he said that would take time and pull the deputy and K9 away from their duties in the county.

“It would tie a deputy up to bring him into the city, to utilize their K9,” Warosh said. “With us, we can deploy quicker, we are more familiar with our own department’s policies.”