It's with great sadness that we report that retired Onondaga County Sheriff's K-9 “Ciro” passed away today at the age of 13. Ciro retired in 2019 after serving 8 years with the Sheriff’s Office. During his years of service, he had the opportunity to work side by side with handler, Sergeant Craig Belcher. Ciro had an exceptional career as a law enforcement dog and was deployed for over 1,000 calls of service, ranging from building searches, area searches, perimeter operations, tracks, officer protection and explosive searches. Ciro was responsible for several criminal apprehensions with the most notable one occurring on January 22nd, 2015. On that day, handler Sergeant Belcher and K-9 Ciro were dispatched to assist the Town of DeWitt Police Department with a bank robbery that had just occurred at the M & T Bank on East Seneca Turnpike in Jamesville. Responding patrol units advised that the suspect had fled north through the parking lot and that possible footprints from the suspect had been located in the snow on the northeast side of the parking lot. These footprints ended shortly thereafter, however footprints were again located on the railroad tracks a short distance from where the original footprints ended. Sergeant Belcher deployed K-9 Ciro in the area and commanded him to track the suspect’s footprints. K-9 Ciro began tracking and led Sergeant Belcher to a path in the woods and then along the backside of a residence adjacent to East Seneca Turnpike. A perimeter was set up around the home by other responding patrol units and the homeowner was contacted. It was then determined that the homeowner’s son may have been involved in the robbery. A subsequent search of the residence led police to recover key pieces of evidence related to the robbery and the possible location of the suspect who had fled to an address in the City of Syracuse. A short time later, officers quickly located the suspect and took him into custody without incident. The actions of Sergeant Belcher and K-9 Ciro were invaluable in that incident, which led to the quick apprehension of an individual who had just committed a bank robbery in the Town of DeWitt.
Ciro will forever be remembered as a wonderful and dedicated K-9. He will be greatly missed. Rest easy buddy.
Original source can be found here.
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