DALTON —
ETON — René Coffey’s partner at the Eton Police Department has special training in finding suspects who flee from law enforcement officials.
And when he finds them, he’s intimidating.
“The first thing they say is usually ‘I give. Don’t let him loose,’” Coffey said.
Coffey’s partner is her 3-year-old German shepherd named Achak. He has been certified as a search and rescue dog since he was 6-months-old and has been certified as a narcotics dog since February of this year.
Achak is Eton’s first K9 unit that Chief Brent Hooper — who has been with the department 18 years — is aware of.
“To be such a small department and have one is very fortunate,” Hooper said. The department has three full-time and two part-time employees, including Hooper.
“(Achak) is so good at tracking, it’s unreal,” he said. “It’s a good tracking dog and a good drug dog. It’s definitely an advantage having him.”
Achak is a scent-specific trailing dog. He can smell something with the scent of a missing person, such as a hat or the person’s car, and be let off leash to find the person. Achak will only follow the trail of that person’s scent. Some rescue dogs are taught to follow any human scent, which sometimes leads them to another officer or rescue worker.
Since the beginning of the year, Achak and Coffey have gone on 16 calls where a person fled law enforcement officials or went missing and 10 narcotics calls for Eton, the Chatsworth Police Department and Murray County Sheriff’s Office. Of those 16 calls, Achak has found the person he was looking for 13 times, Coffey said.
“No dog is 100 percent,” she said. “Trailing is his favorite. But he hasn’t been doing narcotics as long.”
Hooper didn’t seek out to add a K9 unit to his force. Achak is Coffey’s dog and came with her when she started with the department as a part-time officer last June. She became full-time at the beginning of this year when another officer retired.
Coffey, 50, is a Murray County High School graduate of 1977. She spent 13 years in the Marine Corps as an aircraft data analyst, where she spent a five-year tour on Marine One with Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
“That was my best tour,” she said. “I had to decide if (the aircraft) was able to fly or not. It was always able to fly.”
When Coffey left the Marines, she began working for the Environmental Protection Agency in the Washington, D.C., area. She also began working with the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) as an instructor in Virginia.
“I’ve always enjoyed training dogs,” Coffey said. “I always wanted to work with a K9 unit.”
A couple of years ago, Coffey moved back to Murray County to pursue a career as a law enforcement officer.
Coffey said she wanted to be an officer working with a dog since she was in high school.
“I went a long way around,” she said.
Coffey began at the Floyd County Police Department where she worked with a dog at the K9 unit there.
Since Achak was already certified as a search and rescue dog, she began training him to be a narcotics dog so he could join the force.
Coffey is married to John Coffey and has a 25-year-old daughter, Amber Carrier, living in Washington, D.C.
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Want to know more: Law enforcement agencies interested in extending a mutual aid agreement to the Eton Police Department to use Achak’s services can contact Police Chief Brent Hooper at (706) 695-2652.
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