Syracuse Police Department proudly welcomes Police Service Dog (PSD) Riggs to the family. PSD Riggs is an 18-month-old German Shepard from Hungary. Officers carefully selected PSD Riggs from a kennel in California. The Department used state beer tax money to purchase PSD Riggs and all his related equipment.

Officer Brandon Mauhar has been selected to serve as handler for PSD Riggs. This K-9 team recently graduated from handler and narcotics training. It was eight weeks of intensive classroom and practical training; they both performed very well.

Officer Colin Handy attended the same training to become a certified K-9 instructor. He performed so well in this role that he was able to obtain recognition as a K-9 judge. Officer Handy has been serving with PSD Atlas since 2015. The Department is fortunate to have two K-9 teams that represent our guiding principles of Pride, Accountability, Cooperation, and Excellence. Our K-9 unit looks forward to being involved in the community and working hard to make our city safer through the detection of illegal narcotics.