Aiken (SC) Department of Public Safety Bloodhound Tracking Team 

Peter N. Frommer, Director of Aiken (SC) Department of Public Safety

In the early 1980’s, the Aiken, South Carolina Department of Public Safety found itself frequently requesting assistance from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) bloodhound tracking team to help track suspected criminals and lost persons. Consequently, in 1985 the department sent one of its officers, Michael E. Hunt, to SLED headquarters in Columbia to learn the techniques necessary to breed, train, and work bloodhounds in live tracking situations. Once the training was completed, the department received a bloodhound from SLED and began the Aiken Bloodhound Tracking Team. 

The program has grown from a one-officer/one-dog operation to a 12-officer/6-dog bloodhound response team, currently led by Sergeant Charles D. Barranco of the Aiken Department of Public Safety. Officers from the Aiken Department of Public Safety, the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, and the North Augusta Department of Public Safety make up the team.  Members train together every Monday, and are then assigned rotating duty weeks. Each officer is assigned regular law enforcement duties within their respective departments, and report when summoned to the kennels, where the hounds and vehicles are housed.

The type of bloodhound used is a crossbreed of a full-blooded bloodhound, a redbone, and a blue tick hound. The purpose of the cross breeding is to get the best of each breed. You get the exceptional nose and tracking ability from the full bloodhound and the speed and stamina of the redbone and blue tick hound. Because the dogs are regularly used in finding lost children and Alzheimer patients, they are trained not to be aggressive, but to seek attention. They have been well received in the community as popular visitors to schools, safety fairs, and community crime watch meetings.

The Aiken Bloodhound Team currently has mutual aid agreements with 6 surrounding counties and 30 other law enforcement agencies to help track criminal subjects and search for lost persons. It is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to respond to any location in Aiken County in less than 30 minutes. The team responds to approximately 150 calls for service per year, and has a 70% apprehension/find rate. The dogs have proven to be an important deterrent to crime in the area. The dog handlers and hounds are certified as expert witnesses in criminal trials and have never lost a case in which they have testified in South Carolina.

In 2001, the Bloodhound Tracking Team developed a 40-hour tracking school, which is certified by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy. Annually, officers from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida attend the class, where they are taught tracking and perimeter techniques. As a result of this training, many other law enforcement agencies have begun their own bloodhound tracking teams. The Aiken team also breeds new hounds yearly, and in many cases, provides agencies with dogs.

The department has found the cost of the bloodhound program to be minimal, due to the sharing of costs among several local agencies. Also contributing to offsetting the costs is the generous support of some veterinarians, who donate their services, and the contributions of local merchants, who recognize the merit of this service. The Aiken Bloodhound Tracking Team demonstrates on a continual basis its value as an integral asset to the Department of Public Safety and the entire region.

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