WAUKEGAN – Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg announced an extremely successful 2023 for the Lake County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.

Last year, Lake County Sheriff’s K-9 teams were deployed 497 times for calls for K-9 assistance, according to a news release. Of those, 64% originated from the sheriff’s office and 36% of the incidents were assists to local municipal police departments.

During 2023, sheriff’s K-9 teams found 72 people who were missing or endangered or individuals fleeing a violent crime. K-9s found eight firearms during article searches and significant amounts of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, cocaine and illegally possessed cannabis. The department’s electronics detection K-9 found 33 concealed electronic devices, resulting in the arrest of six people for sexually based offenses.

Community engagement also is a key component for the K-9 team. Last year, the department’s K-9s participated in 48 demonstrations throughout Lake County.

The Lake County Board on Jan. 16 read a special recognition honoring the Lake County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.

“We are grateful for the recognition and praise received by our county leaders at the Lake County Board meeting,” Idleburg said. “I could not be more proud of our 10 K-9s and their partners. The results produced by our K-9 unit shows what an incredible resource they are to the Lake County community. We are happy to assist our municipal neighbors as proved with over 170 calls to provide K-9 assistance to area municipalities.”

The Lake County Sheriff’s K-9 Unit is K-9 Axel and Deputy Kevin Gauer, K-9 Boomer (explosive detection) and Deputy Brian Kilpatrick, K-9 Danno and Deputy Andrew Martini, K-9 Dax and Deputy John Forlenza, K-9 Drako and Deputy Roxana Stancioiu, K-9 Duke and Deputy Dwight Arrowood, K-9 Loki and Deputy Kevin Lowe, K-9 Odin and Deputy Matthew Savage, K-9 Tera(byte) (electronics detection) and Detective Cory Kemp and K-9 Zeus and Deputy Kevin Harris

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is working toward continuing to expand its K-9 unit, according to the release.