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If a member of your family or a friend is lost or missing, please contact your local Law Enforcement Agency. We can only respond to requests from Law Enforcement and Fire Departments. You are welcome to supply our information to the agency in charge.
Information for Law Enforcement & Fire Departments:
We are dispatched by request of any Law Enforcement agency or Fire Department. We work as unpaid professionals. Our handlers are schooled in evidence preservation and can work within your incident command structure.
Contact Information for your area (We also deploy throughout the US and International or will find you a SAR team to fill your needs).
Florida contacts
Melissa Ellis --- 239-770-3389-cell
Loralei Nistal---813-317-7151-cell 813-931-5470-home
Ilene Rosoff---813-205-6131-cell
Alabama contacts
Harold Brlecic---256-452-2322-cell 256-447-8709-home
Sylvia Brlecic---256-452-5152-cell 256-447-8709-home
Georgia contacts
Lyn Parsons—East Georgia---727-709-4913-cell 912-385-2230-home
Terry Brlecic---West Georgia---414-550-4862-cell
Louisiana contacts
Cpl. Mike Hughes--- Desoto Parish Sheriff Dept.---318-872-3956 work
Or 318-465-7229
California contacts
Sal & Patti Esposito---( don’t have phone # yet)
Information for Law Enforcement & Fire Departments:
We are dispatched by request of any law enforcement agency or fire department. We always work 100% free-of-charge as unpaid professionals. Our handlers are schooled in evidence preservation and can work within your existing incident command structure.
Whether your agency decides to call our organization or another we want you to be aware of some of the questions that you can ask to help ensure that you are utilizing competent & professional resources:
1) Who certified the dogs and how often are they recertified?
- Any K-9 unit used in a criminal investigation should be certified to current industry standards which include a national LE agency certification and recertification every year by that agency.
2) Can the organization provide LE references?
- If the organization cannot provide LE references, then they probably are not properly certified, although some organizations can provide LE references even though they are not properly certified. Always request to see their certification credentials.
3) How many certified dogs do you have for the scenario?
- Depending on the size of the search, there should be no less than 2 K-9s responding, but you also should not be overrun by K-9s and handlers just ‘trying to get in on the action” either.
Ask for a demo of their K-9s abilities and have some of your LE K-9 handlers present to observe.
Finally, make sure that you are utilizing the correct resource. Just because a dog is land cadaver certified and has several confirmed finds doesn’t mean that dog can work water cadaver and vice versa.
Most cadaver dogs work off lead, so be sure to let the person know about roads and traffic, stray dogs, alligators and other distractions or dangers. If you don’t want media there, be sure to tell the SAR group. Some SAR groups will notify the press. Our organization will not notify the press and will refer all questions to your designated PR person. Most SAR groups will set up a command post, if you need the search to be low key, please tell them before they get to the scene.
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