New Milford has received a donation of two high performance GPS K9 tracking devices for their two canine officers.  They were obtained, in part, through a grant from the Hometown Foundation, which matches needs of municipal organizations with local donors. 

With town budgets tight over the last few years, and the equipment fairly expensive, Police Lieutenant Jeffrey Covello thanked the Town Council for accepting the donation. 

The collars have a unit that stays with the handler.  Covello says the K9s were sent out recently looking for a missing child, and noted that New Milford is the largest town geographically in Connecticut.  Once police exhausted the day's work, he had to print off map and go through with handler exactly which areas were already searched so they didn't cover the same area when the search picked up the next day. 

The GPS unit archives exactly where the dog has roamed.