It has been over 15 years since the Steuben County Sheriff's Office has had any four legged officers on patrol But as our Bill Mich tell us, all of that officially changed Friday as we were introduced to first member of the county's new K-9 Unit.

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BATH, N.Y. -- Meet Daimon. He is a 17-month-old import from Germany who is the newest member of the Steuben County Sheriff's Office. Paid for by donations from the Bath Revitalization Group, Daimon is the first dog to join the Sheriff's new K-9 unit.

"It's been about 15 years, probably, and myself being a former handler, I have always had that passion to come back and bring a dog back because I know what they bring to the table," said Steuben County Sheriff Joel Ordway.

Daimon is still in training and the Sheriff's Office hopes to be have him out in the field by early this fall. One of his tasks will be tracking people, like someone who stumbled away from an accident scene or a veteran who wandered off the grounds at the Bath VA. Another one of his tasks will be detecting narcotics.

"Obviously marijuana is the easiest one to train for, so he is well versed on that, but we are working on methamphetamines, cocaine and some others," Ordway said.

After obtaining a warrant, searching a car or home for drugs can be a very labor intensive process, but the Sheriff says the new K-9 will make the operation quicker and easier to complete. Once Daimon is ready for full duty, he will make his presence known in both the community and the county jail.

"I think it is going to provide them another tool out there knowing we have a tool that is going to help get some of these drugs off the street, whether it is in vehicle stops or search warrants or such. And just the presence of the dog here in the county jail is excellent. Walking through the pods it is amazing how the inmates don't care for a dog bite," the sheriff said.

And officials hope Daimon isn't the first and only member of the new unit. If more funding can be found, the Sheriff's Office would like to add more dogs to the force.