This year Max was nominated for 6 of his suspect apprehensions which resulted in 28 felony charge cases being made, many for violent crimes. All of his apprehensions involved fleeing suspects who had alluded other officers and sometimes Max even had to convince his handler that he was correct. In the world of working dogs, we say it "trust your dog". In one case, not only was the suspect charged with "Assault on a Police Officer", but also, the poor fool was charged with "Assault on a Police Dog."

**Det. Mark Cox "Ceazar" St. Louis County P.D.

Ceazar has won this category again for the unprecedented, fourth year in a row. We have never had a K-9 win a category four years in a row. This past year he responded to 120 requests by local law enforcement agencies, the FBI, DEA, and US Postal Inspection Service. He performed 487 searches; 33 of these investigations were prosecuted at the federal level. His numerous searches yielded $1,707,000 in marijuana, $ 96, 000 in cocaine, $800 in heroin, $1200 in methamphetamines (which totals $1,805,000 in illegal drugs) and he located $296,468 in drug tainted US Currency.

In the four years that Ceazar has been our Outstanding K-9 in this category, he has detected approximately $ 3,500,000 worth of illegal drugs and has been responsible for the seizure of about $4,600,000 in drug tainted currency. By far, he is our area’s most prolific canine officer in this area of law enforcement. The entire metropolitan area owes him a debt of gratitude.

**Following a daring armed robbery at a fast food restaurant, the suspects fled and were apprehended without any evidence. After an exhausting 2 hour search of both a large field and wooded area where the suspects were seen, Zito detected the robbery money which had been buried in the underground by the suspects.

Two exceptional tracking episodes earned Reno this year’s Outstanding Tracking award. In one incident, he discovered the suspect who was hiding in brush near 2 other police officers. The other track was that of a fleeing suspect and was a very complicated track including areas contaminated by other searching police officers, backyards, wooded areas, a creek, over concrete, a lake with ducks, and finally a field with dense, high brush in which the suspect was hiding and gave himself up upon seeing Reno coming at him.

In the episode that has Blek named as the Outstanding K-9 in protection, he not only apprehended a suspect who had fought with his handler who was attempting to detain him, but the sight of a engaged, charging K-9 caused a gathering group of would be supporters of the suspect to quickly disperse. His actions protected his handler, caused the apprehension of a suspect, and kept a volative situation from escalating into a dangerous event.