The town of River Falls is now a little more protected from drugs, thanks to the two newest members of its police force – K9s Coco and Sabbath.

At the town council meeting in November, River Falls Police Chief Greg Jackson asked for permission to purchase the two dogs, and after a month of “thinking on it,” the council approved the purchase 3-1.

Council members Mattie Freeney, Robert Clark and Richard Bowden voted for the purchase, while Cleve Harris voted against it. Gary Wages was absent from the meeting, after previously expressing he did not support the purchase.

The dogs were purchased directly from the drug seizure fund, which Jackson cannot spend on anything except equipment.

Sheriff Dennis Meeks also donated a cage for officer Kyle Adams’ Crown Victoria.

Adams recently spent three weeks training with Sabbath.

Jackson said he feels the dogs are great assets to the town, especially with the amount of drug activity the town sees.

“We are on two major corridors,” he said. “We make the most drug arrests. A dog will allow us to have probable cause (to search) It’s our job to enforce the law.”

Before the dogs, Jackson and Adams would stop a vehicle for speeding, but if the driver didn’t consent to the search, they could possibly miss a large sum of drugs.

On Monday, Jackson and Adams demonstrated the dogs’ abilities by having them search a Covington County Sheriff’s Department patrol car, which had two marijuana cigarettes in the trunk.

Both dogs alerted to the drugs.

Jackson said the dogs must be certified by the judge before they can use them, but said he plans to do that this week.