SPECIAL REPORT: Jax, the K9 officer
Karina Bazarte
BRAWLEY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) – The Brawley Police Department (BPD) has recovered about 100 illegal guns from the streets just this year alone. But they say there’s one team member who’s taken that mission even further.
BPD says they are the only local agency that uses a non-human team member to help them remove illegal guns from the streets. It uses a sharp nose and has four paws.
“Jax is a hard worker. He is a team player and he has paws,” said Detective Javier Martinez with BPD.
Jax is a Labrador Retriever and he is the only K9 in the whole entire valley that specializes in detecting illegal guns and much more.
“We have the only narcotic K9 when we do the street interdiction. We go out and find the illegal activity that is going on and we utilize that K9 a lot which a lot of the time detects firearms in the vehicle,” the officer shared.
Brawley police say since last year, they have received about 36 illegal pistols.
“Over 15 illegal long rifles both unserialized, stolen,” Detective Martinez spoke.
BPD say there are numerous cases where they conduct search warrants and find many illegal guns, including the 3D printers that create these ghost guns.
“I think a lot of the times we have a people relocating here to the city we have a prison that is close by a lot of the time families relocate here to the city which is went they get release from the prison they end up being here in the City of Brawley,” Martinez shared.
To reduce the number of illegal guns on the streets, that’s when our four-legged friend Jax comes in.
“Late last year, we called Jax out to the City of Calexico and he was an assistant on a vehicle which had narcotics and we ended up finding a machine gun in the back of the van,” Martinez remarked.
Agent Brian Harsany says Jax works with every law agency in the Valley including Border Patrol.
“As long as he gets to smell and discover something either a handgun, ammunition and even currency, he will get this toy,” Agent Harsany explained.
He says Jax has to train every week for five hours in order to be certified.
“The department picked this dog and then I went down to San Diego everyday Monday through Friday to train with him,” Harsany said.
Jax is a three-year-old dog born in Guadalajara, Mexico and has two years with the BPD
“Jax is a hero. He loves what he does, he is good at what he does, he is a big asset in our department,” Martinez expressed.