Meet NAPS’ newest K9 service member
The Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) is welcoming it’s newest, furriest recruit.
Kona, a Belgium Malinois, is ready to put her best paw forward as one of two Police Service Dogs on the NAPS K9 team. She celebrated her third birthday five days ago.
She joins the force with her handler Constable Tyler Gordon, a member of Lac Seul First Nation and former U18 AAA goalie for the Kenora Thistles. The duo will be stationed at the new NAPS Northwest regional headquarters in Sioux Lookout.
“She’s part of the family,” Gordon said. “She was the size of my shoe when I got her. We built that relationship throughout the last few years and now I’m her person. I’m incredibly lucky to have her and we’re looking to get to work.”
Kona is trained to complete specialty tasks including missing persons tracking, drug, firearm, and evidence detection, criminal apprehension, and building searches.
“I remember our first track, and it’s like, (Kona) essentially saved a life here. An individual had gone off the lake and into the bush and quite some time had gone by. We were brought to the site where she picked up the scent and we located that individual on the cusp of hypothermia. It’s just so rewarding,” Gordon said.
Bex was announced as NAPS’ first K9 member a few months ago. NAPS interim chief Terry Armstrong says they will look to add a third service dog to the unit in a year or two.
“We jumped at the opportunity to have an experienced officer that a number of us had worked with before in Tyler Gordon. We know that he’s a very competent handler and Kona’s a very competent dog,” Armstrong said.
NAPS has grown rapidly over the past year and is now the largest Indigenous‑led police service in North America. With the addition of Gordon and Kona, they have 326 sworn officers.
“There’s going to be lots of opportunities,” Armstrong said. “Our drug units are growing, our canine units are growing. We’re putting a new headquarters in Sioux Lookout, and we’re also going to be putting a new headquarters on the east side to replace the one in Cochrane. We’re working with both the Ontario and federal governments to grow this police service to the size it needs to be.”
Armstrong says the goal is to grow the NAPS force to 520 officers and 180 civilian members in the next five to six years.
