Sheriff's K9 Tactical Search Team

The Sheriff's K9 Tactical Search Team provides the Scott County Sheriff's Department, all areas within its jurisdiction and adjoining counties and municipalities with search and rescue services, through the use of highly trained search dogs and a team of professionally trained handlers and searchers.

The Team (K9TST) is equipped for short term or extended term searches, and is available on an on-call basis.

To activate the Team, call your law enforcement agency, 911, or contact Team Leader Thomas Beardslee at 573-450-3221.

We`are on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

What We Do

In addition to performing search  and rescue functions, our team is available for the following functions:

     Educational presentations dealing with K9 Search and Rescue, Civilian Emergency Response Teams (C.E.R.T.) and Youth Hunter Education (through the Department of Conservation)

     K9 visits and displays at schools, nursing homes, public events and parades, private businesses, and civic groups.

Lady and Sarge

Lady (left) is a Labrador Retriever and trailing dog, trained for follow the scent of particular humans from a specific point last seen to where the missing person is currently located. There is a discussion of how this is done elsewhere in the web site.

Sarge (right) is a Lab/Beagle mix that was donated to the unit, and he is in training as a Cadaver Dog, for use in finding deceased persons, whether they may be located in a wilderness area, body of water or collapsed structure.

With these two valuable assets, and a team of volunteers, trained and equipped to find missing persons K9TST, provides this service to the public free of charge and operates strictly on donations.