By HEATHER RUPPE
A private donation made to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office has been used to purchase a new K9 cop named Blue. The new bluetick hound is assigned to Deputy Benjamin Polston, who has been with the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office since 2013.
Blue will be used as a tracking canine within the sheriff’s office. He is among five other canine officers: all of these canines are assigned to deputies within the sheriff’s office and are a part of the CCSO’s K9 Unit. According to sheriff’s office Spokeswoman Shalane Lowes, the K9 Unit works to help other officers in a variety of situations, including search and rescue for missing Colleton residents, searching for suspects and drug detection and drug arrests.
“Each K9 and their handler are assigned to the road patrol division, where they are available for dispatch throughout the community,” said Sgt. W. Janicki with the Special Operations, SWAT and K9 Units of the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office. “One handler and K9 is assigned to special investigations to assist the Criminal Investigation division,” he said.
