Myrtle Beach International gains K-9 unit

On Oct. 3, the Horry County Police Department announced that the department will now have a new K-9 unit at the Myrtle Beach International Airport.

The new addition’s name is Bram and is a certified explosive dog.

Bringing Bram to the airport has been in the talks for a while and has finally been brought to life, according to Krystal Dotson, the Public Information Officer for the Horry County Police.

The process of getting Bram to the airport, Dotson explained, was that they first needed to justify having him.

“By having a canine in the airport facility, it would reduce the amount of time to assess a situation, due to not having to wait for an assisting canine to arrive," said Dotson. "A trained canine could clear a large portion of the building within minutes making that area safe.”

The next step was to get approval from the chain of commands by researching the pros and cons, as well as filling out the paperwork for the procurement.

Bram’s jobs include doing continuous patrols around the airport, as well as the Horry County Department of Airports General Aviation in order to deter any criminal activity.

The trainer who trained him to detect the explosives selected Bram for the job—the dogs are chosen based on their drive for completing their tasks.

While Bram is the only official fulltime K-9 unit in the Myrtle Beach airport, there are several other dogs training in the facility.

The Horry County police have another explosive dog that assists with securing the facility and SLED has two canines that are training but assist in the facility.

There are rotating shifts for the unit to optimize the coverage and security in the airport.

Having the K-9 unit at the Myrtle Beach airport will provide another measure of safety, according to Dotson.

“As the number of passengers at the Myrtle Beach International Airport continues to increase, the addition of the K-9 unit will enable our officers to continue providing the highest level of safety and security to the traveling public and our employees,” said Dotson.