Established in 1978 the Amesbury Police Department K-9 Unit is one of the oldest in the Commonwealth. The K-9 Unit was founded by Chief Michael Cronin with K-9 Barron. Following Chief Cronin was Sgt. Kevin Ouellet and K-9 Wess, Det. Rick Poulin followed, handling two dogs. Det. Poulin’s first partner was K-9 Kujo followed by K-9 Barry. Then in 2000, the Unit’s current handler Officer Thomas Nichols was assigned to the K-9 Unit with K-9 Hans. In July of 2006 K-9 Hans unexpectedly passed away due to cancer and was replaced by the departments current K-9, Kaybar.
K-9 Kaybar is a Slovakian bred German shepherd imported by Amsel Kennels of Akron, NY. in August of 2007. Kaybar was trained at the Boston Police K-9 Academy for 14 weeks of Patrol school with his Handler Off. Nichols. The K-9 Academy trains the dogs in Apprehension, Obedience, Tracking, Building Searches, Area Searches, Agility, and Evidence Recovery
After graduating from the Patrol Class, Off. Nichols and K-9 Kaybar attended the Worcester Police K-9 Unit Narcotic Detection Class for 9 weeks. The course teaches the dogs to sniff for narcotics in buildings, vehicles, luggage, packages and boats. K-9 Kaybar is certified to sniff for the following substances; Heroin, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, and Marijuana.
Since March of 2007 K-9 Kaybar has received his National Certification in Patrol through the United States Police Canine Association and his National Certification in Narcotics Detection from the North American Police Work Dog Association.
K-9 Unit