Paul Bickford
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (July 11/05) - RCMP in the Northwest Territories will soon have a police service dog to call their own.

Dog handler Cpl. Mark Hicks and a German shepherd named Lasse (pronounced Lass-ah) will are expected to arrive by mid-August.

They will be stationed in Yellowknife and provide service to the entire NWT, said Sgt. Darcy Fleury, a spokesperson for 'G' Division.

"It will be fully trained so it can do all types of services," Fleury said, noting that includes searching for both narcotics and lost people.

The last RCMP dog in the NWT, specifically trained to search for narcotics, served for two years until last year.

"We've done an assessment here and we believe a dog is a police requirement, and that's why we've requested it," Fleury explained.

Most recently, a police dog from Alberta was requested to help in the search for two missing Fort Simpson men.