The ability to smell a crime was added to the local police force this month.

A K-9 police dog, Neiko, and Officer Andy Johnson finished a 12-week training program at the St. Paul Police Department and started their service at the Albert Lea Police Department.

In the past three months, Officer Johnson has developed a relationship with Neiko through training and living together in a hotel room in St. Paul. Back in Albert Lea, Johnson and Neiko continue living together in Johnson’s residence and go out to a night-patrol duty in a squad car specially remodeled for the K-9 unit.

&uot;I couldn’t have asked for a better dog,&uot; said Johnson. &uot;When I change to my uniform, he knows that I am on duty. And then he never leaves my side.&uot;

Neiko has already been dispatched to several accident and crime scenes and proven his outstanding tracking ability, Johnson said. Neiko is also capable of apprehending an armed suspect.

The city police have not had a K-9 unit since a former trainer retired with a dog specialized in narcotic investigation in 1998. The department had no choice but to ask Austin police or the Mower County Sheriff’s Office whenever a canine was needed for tracking or other uses.

Johnson was the one who made a proposal to Albert Lea Police Chief Tom Menning to rebuild the department’s K-9 unit. Johnson said he was convinced of the necessity after examining how a canine could have contributed to investigations by going through 911 logs and counting the number of incidents where a dog would have been helpful.

The department plans to send Johnson and Neiko to drug-investigation training in this fall; that would make the police dog applicable to a wide range of police business.

&uot;Dogs are extremely beneficial to the police,&uot; said Assistant Chief Dwaine Winkels. Only during the last year, Winkels could recall that the department needed to call for the use of other departments’ canines at least a half-dozen times. &uot;There is an initial cost, but a good K-9 dog can redeem it,&uot; Winkels said.