DRPS adds police dog True to new search and rescue, human remains program
The Durham Regional Police Service has added Police Service Dog True to its Canine Unit as part of a new Search and Rescue/Human Remains Detection (SAR/HRD) K9 program.
Police said the program is meant to help locate missing people and support searches and investigations involving human remains.
True is a German Shorthaired Pointer trained to support searches for missing, vulnerable and deceased people. He was born in Germany on June 29, 2025, and was trained for search and rescue work.
His training includes human scent tracking, evidence detection, open-area searching and human remains detection.
True is trained to follow a person’s scent across different environments and surfaces to help locate them or determine their direction of travel. He is also trained to find items or evidence carrying human scent.
True can systematically search large outdoor areas using handler-directed and independent search techniques.
True will primarily be deployed in searches for missing children; vulnerable or elderly people; non-violent people experiencing a mental health crisis; and people who may be injured, lost or disoriented.
When he locates a person, True is trained to stay with them and alert his handler by sitting and barking until the handler arrives. Police describe this as a “passive response” used when apprehension is not necessary.
Durham police announced the addition of True in an Oct. 28 news release.