‘Tracker’ sniffs out the bad guys

Who’s the most popular dog in Burnett County?

Mitch Olson has the answer — “Tracker”, of-course.

County Deputy Olson is prejudiced because he and tracker are a team, and together they are sniffing their way to drug and other kinds of arrests.

Take January 17 for instance. That’s the day Tracker, who has a nose for such things, helped Olson and other deputies track down drugs that led to arrests.

Tracker is also a good teacher. He’s taught Deputy Olson that, “There is more methamphetamine use in the county are than there is marijuana use”.

That surprised the officer.

The very morning of a demonstration by Tracker at the Grantsburg Rotary Club meeting, the partners were out until 2:30 a.m. Tracker was doing the sniffin’ and Olson the following. The deputy rubbed his eyes, indicating he hadn’t had much sleep, then said, “It’s just part of the job.”

The playful Tracker is more of a ‘big kid” that a serious, hard-working deputy. “He tracks not just suspects but anybody”, or anything he can detect. Yet, he remains playful, and as Deputy Olson says, “He thinks it’s play.”

Olson and Tracker have become so close that the dog, “Listens to my voice, which is really nice.” There can be a myriad of distractions, but Tracker only responds to Olson.

At night or when he’s not working, Tracker, “Hangs out with other dogs at a kennel.”
He loves the chance to romp with the other dogs.

Tracker makes a difference in the department in many ways. “During a pursuit last winter, a suspect threw a gun out the window. We walked up and down the road and finally found the gun in a snowbank. Tracker found it. Without him, we’d never have recovered that firearm.”
If Deputy Olson gets in a scrape and needs help, “I press a button in my pocket and he (Tracker) comes and bails me out,” he said.

The 75-pound Tracker can be intimidating to suspects. During a recent tracking incident, the suspect, “Called out … ‘Over here,’ indicating where he was located. The suspect added, ‘I don’t want to get bit.’ And he just gave up,” chuckled Deputy Olson.

Deputy Olson said Tracker can hunt down drugs in a vehicle, “We don’t need a search warrant. He alerts us about a vehicle and based on his training, reasonable suspicion is enough.”

Tracker actually came from Slovakia, where Europeans maintain the bloodline of such dogs. “it’s a much better working line (of dog) that dates back to the time of Adolph Hitler (in Germany),” Olson said.

Tracker, who participates in training about once a month, knows what to do when he faces a potentially dangerous situation. “He’s trained, when he fights, to bite and hold. It still hurts, but we train him to create as little pain as possible,” said the deputy.

Recently he tracked down a couple of suspects from Pine County and, “He got a hold of them,” related Deputy Olson.

While Tracker is a “fighter,” he also goes into “friendly” mode and has been working with fifth-graders in all three county schools (Grantsburg, Siren, and Webster), plus the “tribe”. The kids ask questions and they’re learning the value of having a K9 on duty in Burnett County.
Tracker has been so successful there are plans for a second K9. “We are raising funds for a second dog, “said Lisa Slater, who is at the forefront of fundraising efforts.

A dog will be hand-picked, and if it doesn’t work out, he will be sent back and a new one selected.

Slater indicated a second dog would cost about $15,000 — so fundraising is necessary.

Dogs like Tracker generally work seven to eight years, then are retired. “When he retires, I have the option to buy him,” said Olson.
But, until then, Burnett County will continue to have the team of Olson and Tracker to sniff out the bad guys and find the drugs.

“It blows my mind that there are more meth arrests than marijuana, but it’s a (continuing) fight. I don’t know if we’re winning or not. But we’re staying busy,” said Olson.

On February 18, 2020 the Grantsburg Rotary Club invited Burnett County Sheriff’s Deputy Mitch Olson along with K9 Tracker to put on a demonstration of finding hidden drugs at Crex Convention Center. Olson had hidden the drugs while Tracker was out of the room.

The Burnett County Law Enforcement Citizen’s Auxillary is currently raising funds to bring in a second K9 dog to help with the current load on Tracker and Olson, as well as setting up a future where there will always be two dogs in the county. A dog is serviceable for about six years on the job.

For more information on how to help bring another dog into Burnett County, go to the Citizens Auxillary’s Facebook page.