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Meet North Las Vegas' newest police dog, Storm

Posted at 10:07 AM, Oct 26, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-26 16:12:17-04

North Las Vegas police got a new special officer.

Storm is the department's newest canine officer. He just finished his patrol certification.

Now, the North Las Vegas Police Department has five canines. They use them all the time to search for criminals and evidence.

These dogs spend all their time, and go home, with their officers.

RELATED STORY: Watch a day in the life of NLVPD K9 Officer Boris

Patrol training was 14 weeks for Storm and Sergeant Scott Salkoff, his human handler. The pair will now start eight weeks of field training.

"I'm grateful to have four kids and so I went through the toddler phase with four of them and he is just like having four two-year-olds at home," said Salkoff.

The North Las Vegas canines were in Mesquite while authorities searched the home of Stephen Paddock, the October 1 shooter. They were the only working dogs on the scene, just in case detectives found booby traps or someone violent. Dogs are a non-lethal tool that can persuade suspects to surrender.

"If I was to send this dog after somebody because the person's not complying or they're running and the person turned around and says forget it, I give up. I can stop him. You can't stop any other tool once you've let it go," said Salkoff.

The bond between human officer and a canine officer is special.

"We'd roll with partners and everybody would argue where we were going to eat dinner and stuff like that. With a dog, I mean he's in the back and that's his happy place. He always wants to be in the back of the truck with us," said William harder, a North Las Vegas police canine handler.

The department hopes Storm will be able to serve for the next 10 years.