SOAP LAKE — The Soap Lake Police Department is asking for the public’s help to raise around $15,000 to pay for the department’s first K-9 unit, K-9 Billy.

While most police dogs currently on the force in Grant County are trained as patrol dogs, chasing down fleeing subjects, and the Quincy Police Department has a K-9 trained to detect illegal drugs, K-9 Billy will be the only dog in the county trained to do both, said Sgt. Spencer Nulph. He’s also an absolute sweetheart, Nulph added, perfect for presentations with the public and in schools.

“He’s extremely social,” Nulph said. “When he’s not working, he sticks his tongue out, lays at your feet and just wants pets.”

The department has already made a down payment of $5,000 for K-9 Billy. The SLPD is buying the dog from Vohne Liche Kennels, the same Indiana-based company that produced K-9 Chewbacca, Nulph said. But K-9 Billy costs $10,000 in total, Nulph added, not including $5,000 for training and another $6,000 in additional expenses needed to get the hound on the streets of Soap Lake.

The department had big plans for fundraisers, but those plans didn’t account for the current pandemic. Now the department is asking the public to make donations online to makeup the difference, and though some of the costs for training won’t need to be paid until mid-August, the department needs to raise most of its fundraising goal in the next month, according to a social media post.