Century Bank and the Harlin family will sponsor OCSO police dog

A new canine deputy will be joining the Ozark County Sheriff’s Office in a few months, thanks to a generous donation from the Harlin family and Century Bank of the Ozarks. OCSO Deputy Cpl. Curtis Dobbs, second from right, accepted the donation last week. Dobbs said John, pictured far left, and his wife Linda, as well as their son, Century Bank CEO Chris Harlin, far right, and Chris’ wife Missy (not pictured) offered to fund the police canine as a result of Dobbs’ recent presentation at a Lions Club meeting. “During the meeting, they asked, ‘What do you need most?’ I told them I’d really like to get a dog that could track and find drugs,” Dobbs said. “I was pleasantly surprised when I got a call a few days later from Linda, who asked us to come down and talk about it.” The Harlins told Dobbs they’d like to cover the cost of the dog, the training of the canine and its deputy handler and outfitting a police vehicle to accommodate the canine unit. Dobbs spoke with Sheriff Darrin Reed, who agreed that the canine unit would be an asset to the department. Dobbs then contacted TorchLight K9, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, company that specializes in raising and training police canines, and learned that training the dog and deputy handler will take at least 15 weeks. He anticipates the canine unit will be in Ozark County full-time within four months. Updated stories on the new canine deputy will be shared in future editions of the Times.

Ozark County Times

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Gainesville, MO 65655

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