LCSO K-9 unit sniffs out drugs, suspects and searches for those lost

Editor’s note: This story is among features in the newly-released 2026 edition of Laurens Living magazine, available now at The Courier Herald and other local businesses.

The dog sits in the back of a vehicle. He is stretched out and waiting patiently.

Before he knows it, the vehicle door opens, sending a message to “man’s best friend.” It’s go time. 

Tango, along with his handler deputy David Boatright, with the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office, are ready for their call to action, which means a call to help take drugs off the streets, find a lost person or chase down and make an arrest on a fleeing suspect. 

“When it comes to a dog, their nose is about 10,000 times stronger than ours,” Boatright said. “They can smell things that we can’t.” 

Tango becomes excited when commanded to sniff around a vehicle. He moves quickly all around it. With his nose, Tango covers every inch as he listens for commands from Boatright. Tango will let his handler know when he detects contraband. 

“Overall, it’s a good feeling whenever you can get narcotics off the street or you get somebody who is wanted and have them in custody,” Boatright said. “The more narcotics you take off the street, the more lives that are saved in the end.”

Sheriff’s Maj. Alan Baggett said the office received a grant for three K-9 units. The grant pays for the dogs, their handler-deputies’ salaries and equipment. 

“It has been nice having to utilize them,” Baggett said. “If a deputy stops someone on the side of the road, and they have reasons of suspicions on a vehicle, they’ll call a dog in and they can react.” 

Boatright has been with the LCSO for approximately three years and in law enforcement for about 16 and working as a member of a K-9 unit for 10 years. Tango and Boatright have been a team since last November. Tango is able to search for narcotics, make criminal apprehension and track a suspect or missing person. When it comes to criminal apprehension, Boatright and Tango are looking for those who have robbed, shot someone or committed a serious crime.

“We want to keep suspects from hurting anybody else,” Boatright said. “And when you find a lost person, it makes you feel good that you are able to do that. We use our dogs to see if we can track them down in order to bring them home safely or bring them into custody. 

Tango has a specific toy he able to play with when he successfully completes a task.

“He wants that toy,” Boatright said. “There is great satisfaction when there is a good outcome. He knows when it is time to go to work.”

Tango is a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois. 

“He is hyper,” Boatright said. “He is a firecracker. He is very go, go, go. He is very good at his job.” 

Tango was purchased and brought from overseas. Boatright and Tango trained for eight weeks with Darby Colvin and Marsha Peavy at the Dooly County Sheriff’s Office.

“They are probably some of the best in the nation and are very highly known and very well respected in the K-9 community,” Boatright said. “You get people who come from all over the state to get dogs there for training.” 

Besides Tango and Boatright, the sheriff’s office employs Biggin, a black lab, and deputy Walt Turner, and Bella, a bloodhound, and deputy Cameron Coleman.

“It really helps a lot to have us all be where we are able to work together and train together,” Boatright said. “We are on call 24/7. If we are needed, somebody is coming.” 

LCSO has been known to train with Wheeler, Telfair, Dodge, Treutlen and Bleckley counties. 

“We all work together, and we’re in rural areas,” Boatright said. “It’s good where we can network together. If they know something, they can call me and ask about it and vice versa. For us having the dogs around each other and other people, it is good so that they are not aggressive with others. When we are around other people, I like for (Tango) to be sociable. He likes being loved on and he loves to play. But he knows when it is time to turn it on and turn it off.” 

The K-9 dogs live with their handlers and become part of the family. 

“We feed them and we take care of them,” Boatright said. “We play with them on our time off. They are owned by the sheriff’s office, but he’s ours. He’s not a pet – he’s a family member. In the end, his whole job is to protect me, and I’m there to protect him. We rely on each other.” 

There was a time that whenever a suspect ran away or a person wandered off and was lost in the woods, law enforcement and first responders would have to wait for a tracker from another county to arrive. Sometimes that took hours – and during a rescue or criminal apprehension – waiting around for assistance is a horrible feeling.

“Now we are at the point where we don’t have to wait,” Boatright said. “We are very blessed to have that. The sheriff saw this as an opportunity to help make the community safer. An elderly person may have medicine they need or the weather may play a factor. A lot of the times, especially with autistic children, we have a time frame because you only have so long to get to them before something happens and they fall into water or something dangerous like that. Unfortunately, we have seen that before. If we can use one of these dogs to stop that from happening, that’s what it is all about.” 

The K-9 unit for the LCSO been successful capturing illegal drugs.

“That has been a blessing,” Baggett said. 

If the suspect runs, the sooner a K-9 unit is there, the better chances of a successful arrest. 

“The best thing we can do is get one of the dogs there,” Baggett said. “These K-9 deputies are very dedicated. They come out whenever they are needed. We’re going to continue to have these K-9s working in the county to keep the drugs cleaned up.”

With a previous dog, Boatright was able to save one or two people who were lost.

“They were elderly,” he said. “It was such a good feeling to know that you were able to save somebody’s grandmother or grandfather. It makes you feel so much better about yourself.”

Boatright did not go from being an officer to a K-9 unit handler overnight. He, along with other K-9 officers, had to go through training.

“As a unit we get together to train two days a month,” Boatright said. “It will be anything between tracking and working on finding narcotics in different scenarios. We don’t just do cars. We search in residences, buildings and narcotics that are buried underground. We’ll go out and train at the schools so that we can work on finding (narcotics) in the lockers or book bags. You never know what you are going to see.” 

Or the dangers they will come across.

“This job isn’t safe, especially with what we do,” Boatright said. “We are going after the worst of the worst. Thankfully, we’ve been very lucky with our training. He has been donated a brand new bulletproof/stab proof vest to help protect him as well. That will save the taxpayers thousands of dollars because that’s not cheap at all. But, it was something that was needed.” 

Boatright always wanted to be a K-9 officer. He has always been concerned about the dangers of drugs and how they affected others.

“I have lost family members and friends from drug use,” he said. “That is something I take pretty serious. I saw this job as an opportunity to get more of the narcotics off the streets. When it comes down to it, if it is one life saved, it’s worth it.”

And if they are looking for a suspect, law enforcement wants to be able to catch them quickly. This includes a LCSO K-9 unit going to another jurisdiction or county to do what they do best – search and find.

“We don’t want the suspects to hurt somebody else,” Boatright said. “We have been called to other towns and cities. Our jobs just don’t stop in this county. We’ll go wherever we need to go to get the bad guys.”