By Jim Newell

Review Editor

For Oakland County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) Deputy Mike Garrison and Paco, there was one last assignment before hanging up the uniform for the final time and retiring the sniffer (for official purposes, at least).

Their final duty: attending the Orion Area Youth Assistance Family Funfest on April 18 for a demonstration and a lot of petting from the kids – for Paco, at least.

“He’s always a big hit with the kids,” Garrison said. “They stop whatever their doing to come over and pet him and see what he can do.”

Garrison and Paco, a Dutch Shepherd, are part of the sheriff’s K9 Unit and are stationed at the OCSO Orion Township Substation.

While Garrison, 62, has been on the job a while longer, he and Paco have been keeping Oakland County safe since 2012. For the past three-and-a-half years, they have worked in Orion Township. Prior to Paco, Garrison handled another canine for eight-and-a-half years.

“Paco and I have worked in every single township that the OCSO patrols, at one time or another,” Garrison said.

Garrison and Paco have worked crime scenes to detect narcotics, track fugitives and locate bodies of the deceased. They’ve tracked missing or lost children and located wandering Alzheimer’s patients.

Paco – called a patrol service dog by the OCSO K9 handlers – is trained to sniff out marijuana, heroin, crack-cocaine and crystal meth.

Now, Garrison said it’s time he and Paco turn over their responsibilities to another K9 team.

“Law enforcement, police work is a young man’s job. It’s pretty physical, canine handling even more so and it’s just time. Time to step aside and let the younger fellas move in and we move on,” Garrison said.

Lt. Dan Toth, commander of the OCSO Orion Township Substation, has known Garrison for years,

“Peace officers who wear the uniform are on the front lines 24/7 and it his heavy burden knowing that the next call for service or even what appears to be a routine citizen contact can suddenly and drastically change your life or worse. The vast majority of police officers humbly remain behind the scenes as they carry out their public safety duties and Deputy Mike Garrison has certainly been carrying a heavy “back pack of responsibility,” Toth said.

“After 24 years of helping people solve life’s conflicts, his last and very positive public event was the most positive way for Michael to end a very successful career as a peace officer! His last call for service is to lighten his “backpack of responsibility” and have some fun!” Toth said.

Garrison said he thinks Paco is looking forward to retirement as well.

“He’s slowing down a little bit, his age is slowing him down a little, and it’s strenuous work for him. He’s climbed under dash board of cars, basements, crawlspaces, up in attics searching for things, so it’s hard on the dogs.”

Garrison began working for the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office part time in the marine patrol in 1993 and became a fulltime deputy in 1994.

Paco will spend his retirement with Garrison. “The handler and the dog form a pretty good bond. At home he’s just a family dog and gets along with all the family. That’s his life,” Garrison said.

Paco is trained in obedience, tracking, narcotic detection, area search, building search (including cars and schools), fugitive apprehension and handler protection and is certified through the National Association of Professional Canine Handlers.

Paco also has a great demeanor, transitioning from police work to interacting with the public quickly.

“We work hard on that. We take the dogs and go look for bad guys and then an hour later we might be in an elementary school letting the kids pet him, so we try real hard to socialize the dogs,” Garrison said.

When visiting schools, Garrison focuses on positive interactions with the students, using demonstrations to teach them how Paco uses his senses to detect drugs, track people and overall training and obedience.

“It takes a lot of obedience to work one of these dogs. We certify them in all of those avenues every year, and we can’t certify them in any of them until we certify them in obedience,” Garrison said.

Toth said Orion Township will get another K9 handler and dog, but will miss Garrison and Paco and the service they provided to the community.

“He’s a very humble man. But when it’s his time to work, he steps up and takes charge,” Toth said.