PARSONS, Ks. — The Parsons Police Department is going to the dogs, but in this case – that saying is a good thing.

Robert Spinks, Parsons Police Chief, said, “That’s the key thing in rural Kansas, we have to work together or we just are not effective.”

And to do this, the Parsons Police Department has been working on a very special project for over 20 years. On Monday night, it finally came together.

“This is exciting for our department, we received approval last night from our city commission to purchase our first canine.”

This specific K-9 is named Karim, and thanks to the community, he will soon be the newest member of the department.

“This is really a community supported endeavor, we’ve been able to raise $14,500 so far, and another $10,000 in pledges.”

Up to this point, the department has depended on K-9 units in other cities.

Darren Eichinger, Labette County Sheriff, said, “Even if they do have K-9’s, we still go out and help them, a lot of times if there are K-9 officers, one of ours can come on out and help them.”

Now Karim will join those other dogs in the county to help those in need.

“It benefits everybody because a lot of times if we don’t have our K-9s out or they’re down, they can call one of the other cities that may have one and they would respond to help them.”

Speeding up investigations, and helping make parsons, as well as departments across the county, more effective.

“We don’t have to wait around, if we make a traffic stop we can deploy the dog instantaneously, if we have to go do a search of a building or its part of a search warrant process, we instantaneously have that extra cool, very sensitive nose that will point us in the right direction,” said Spinks.