Nevada City, CA – The Nevada County Sheriff’s Office (NCSO) is pleased to announce and welcome the newest member of its team: K9 Riggs. K9 Riggs is a 6-year-old German Shepherd and a seasoned police dog with three years of prior policing experience.
In order to join the NCSO team, he and his handler, NCSO Deputy Kayla Ramos, went through six-weeks of training through D-TAC K9, a Northern California training organization that specializes in patrol and detection K9 training. The training was generously paid for by the Rudiger Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to providing local law enforcement with K9 resources.
In total, Deputy Ramos and K9 Riggs completed 240 hours of training and graduated on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. That same evening, K9 Riggs made a soft debut to the community. Those who attended Heroes Night at Nevada Union High School were able to see K9 Riggs apprehend a pretend “bad guy” on the football field.
Deputy Ramos and K9 Riggs officially hit the streets together on patrol on Monday, Sept. 9. K9 Riggs is now Peace Officers and Standards Training (POST) certified in detection for narcotics, specializing in alerting for methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin, and certified in patrol, specializing in suspect searching, building searching, handler protection, and apprehension.
“Having another K9 dual trained to respond to incidents and aid investigations is a major benefit to not only the Sheriff’s Office, but the community at large, especially where illegal narcotics are concerned,” said Sheriff Shannan Moon. “We look forward to seeing what this dynamic duo will accomplish together.”
K9 Riggs is the third K9 to join the team since Sheriff Moon reestablished the K9 Program in 2020. The first K9, Ranger, retired in May of this year. K9 Riggs and K9 Vito now represent the K9 Program with another K9 expected to join the team by the end of the year, largely thanks to the Rudiger Foundation.
The Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the Rudiger Foundation for their steadfast support of its K9 Program.