ALL COUNTY K-9 SEARCH TEAM OF IOWA, INC. (ACK-9) is a non-profit organization that provides professional-level search
dog teams to assist law enforcement and fire/rescue in searches for missing or lost people.
ACK-9 has worked as a search unit in Iowa since 1996. The unit is small and works closely together on a weekly
basis. Its members have assisted in well over one hundred searches in Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois. They have
participated in searches for lost hunters/hikers, wandering Alzheimer’s patients, lost children, abducted children,
drowning victims (lakes, rivers and ponds), fugitives from the law, evidence and others. The team and its members
are not paid and only respond to requests made by public safety agencies. The team is on-call through out the state
24 hours a day/seven days a week. If an ACK-9 team is not available the unit associates with other qualified dog
teams and can send them in their place to help.
ACK-9 trains weekly in the skills necessary to be useful at actual searches. In addition to having handlers/trainers
on the team with 10+ years of experience, the unit works with other experienced and knowledgeable law enforcement,
fire/rescue and search dog personnel. This includes training with members of the Des Moines Police Department
and other local law enforcement agencies, Law Enforcement Bloodhound Association, the Texas Department
of Corrections, and others. Handlers travel each year to train with other professionals and receive instruction in
search dog deployment, training, search strategy and more. Dog teams are qualified to work actual cases through a
lengthy on-going process of evaluation and assessment. Basic search strategy, scent collection, search management
and team infrastructure is based on principles developed by William Tolhurst, Chief of Special Forces, Niagara County
Sheriff’s Department, New York State. (Link to Tolhurst Website).
The team’s outside training comes from nationally recognized sources such as the National Bloodhound Training
Institute, Texas Alliance of Search K-9’s (TASK) and others. Handlers also have training in CPR/First Aid, law
enforcement accepted evidence preservation/chain of custody, crime scene conduct, utilization of confidential or
sensitive information and have the proper National Incident Management System (NIMS) credentials recommended by FEMA.
Two ACK-9 handlers are also Reserve Police Officers and dog handlers for the Des Moines Police Department,
Des Moines, Iowa. Another handler is an EMT-B and volunteers for the Gilman, Iowa Fire Department in Marshall
County.