Duval County Public Schools swears in new police chief & drug detection K9

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new person in charge of Duval County Public Schools security, as new DCPS Police Chief Jackson Short was sworn in Thursday morning, alongside a new drug detection dog for DCPS: K9 Penny.

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As for Chief Short, he said at Thursday’s swearing-in he’s ready to build upon what he called a successful run by former DCPS Police Chief Greg Burton, who ended up having to step down from the position due to medical reasons.

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“Detection of the weapons early, you got to see our drug dog Penny today, the firearms detection dog [as well,] those are all new strategies that Chief Burton was working on and we’re going to continue to build upon those,” said Chief Short on Thursday.

READ: K9 Officer Maverick officially joins Duval County School Police team’s specialty K9 unit

Chief Short told Action News Jax Thursday morning he’s still in the early stages of identifying his priorities as the next chief, taking feedback from those around him in the department and community.

“Right now, we’re looking at our policies, making sure that our training is where it needs to be,” said Chief Short. “That’s the beauty of coming in during the summertime, is we get to spend that extra time training during the summer to get ready for the start back to school in August.”

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Meanwhile, K9 Penny is also ready for the call to duty, as one of the very few K9s throughout the Duval County area who can detect the deadly drug fentanyl.

“The main message is that the Duval County School Police, our mission is to make sure that the students are safe and that the teachers and staff have an environment that’s safe for them to teach our students,” Chief Short added. “That’s what our mission is, to make sure that environment is in place.”

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