The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office K9 Unit is made up of 17 working K9’s.

Supervised by Sgt Clay Smith and Sgt Robert Lenzo, they are tasked with patrol duties, contraband detection duties, tracking duties and community outreach.

The SRSO K9 Unit, uses several dog breeds to serve Santa Rosa County. We have Belgian Malinois’, German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, German Shorthaired Pointers, a Labrador and Bloodhounds.

9 of the 17 K9’s are dual-purpose K9’s trained to search for and apprehend high-risk criminals and locate illegal narcotics or explosives.

4 of the 17 K9’s are single purpose dogs trained to locate illegal narcotics or electronics detection. They work within our Santa Rosa County Schools, the Santa Rosa County Jail and on our Criminal Interdiction Team.

4 of the 17 K9’s are trained in tracking only. The Bloodhound Tracking Team are tasked with locating missing people or wanted fugitives in Santa Rosa County.

All of the SRSO K9 Unit K9’s have been through extensive training to certify and protect the Santa Rosa County Citizens.