ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) – In an effort to keep the community and its guests safe the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office now has its first bomb dog at the Hard Rock Casino Rockford.
The dog is named Dice, a year-old half black lab half flat coated retriever from Slovenia. Dice will be the first specially trained bomb-sniffing dog who will be in the community.
With the addition of this dog the sheriff’s office now has seven K-9’s. The sheriff’s office has two sniffing dogs in the Winnebago County Jail who have been a part of the program for a while.
“It’s something that interested in me, but I didn’t want to run a patrol dog. Having a bomb dog is more unique,” said Dice’s Handler Deputy Joel Carlson.
The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office has had a presence at the casino dating back to ‘The Opening Act’. Last summer Sheriff Gary Caruana and Casino President Geno Iafrate met to go over its safety and security plan as they transitioned from the smaller temporary casino to the larger permanent space.
Caruana brought up having a bomb-sniffing dog but his office not having the funds to sustain it because of its K-9 program.
The casino sponsored the dog without hesitation.
“It was a no brainer. We came to a yes on it quickly,” said Iafrate.
The casino spent more than $75,000 on Dice and his handler’s training. Dice trained on his own for six weeks before he trained with Carlson for the same amount of time.
“He was picked for high energy. The fact he works and doesn’t want to quit is why we picked him,” said Carlson.
Hard Rock also paid for a K-9 squad car.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you are periodically here, and you see dice roaming around. It’s not because we have any specific concerns it’s because of Dice’s training,” said Iafrate.
Caruana said Dice will sniff out suspicious things first which will determine if the bomb squad needs to be called out.
“Any type of devices they are worried about we are going to bring Dice out there cause it’s going to help out and it saves lives,” said Caruana.
“It goes outside the boundaries of our property,” said Iafrate. “We want to make sure the community in which we do business is a better place for everybody to live.”
The sheriff’s office added their bomb-sniffing dog can go as far as Rock Island to detect a threat. They also want to bring Dice to different places for educational events.
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