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Camden County Police Department To Add More K-9 Officers To Force

By Paul Kurtz

CAMDEN, N.J., (CBS) -- The Camden County Police Department is beefing up its K-9 unit.

Police Chief Scott Thomson says through a combination of grants and corporation donations, the force will be adding five more dogs to the unit for a total of seven.

"We're going to be acquiring dogs over the next several weeks as we have a K-9 academy that is coming up," Chief Thomson said.

Sgt. Zsakhiem James, a veteran of the unit, will be heavily involved with training the new recruits. He says police dogs are a force multiplier.

"They allow us to be in different places and do a lot of different things such as search schools, buildings, churches and do it a lot quicker. So it gets officers back on the street and we don't have to take ten or twelve officers to search a school when I can just search my dog, myself and one other cover officer," Sgt. James said.

James' partner, Office Zero, holds the state apprehension record with 67 take downs.

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