The Maui Police Department has a new four-legged officer on its force.

His name is Jack and instead of looking for drugs, we’re told Jack will help save lives.

Many K-9 units are trained to sniff for drugs or explosives, but Jack is the first of his kind for Maui police. This canine specializes in tracking the scent of people who are missing.

“Right now he’s the only tracking dog in Maui County,” said Wayne Silva, a K-9 trainer with HPD.

Currently MPD relies on Honolulu police scent dogs any time there’s a missing person. We’re told those HPD units can’t make it to Maui until hours later, but that will change now that Jack is on board.

“Our last one, we went up to Haleakala looking for an elderly man and we didn’t get to him until first thing in the morning,” Silva said. “He stayed overnight in sub-40-degree temperatures. You get an immediate response rather than wait for all the red tape you’ve got to go through to get us to go over there.”

MPD says it has at least four to five missing persons cases a month. All are handled on a case-by-case basis.

“Children, someone with Alzheimer’s, someone who may have gotten injured and stumbled off,” said Wade Madea with the Maui Police Department. “If we could deploy the dog right away, then we could have a good chance of trying to find the person.”

“If you got lost, we’d probably go to your house, your husband, your parents and ask for a piece of clothing, put in a bag, make sure it’s sterile, drop it in front of the dog, and let the dog do the rest of the work,” Silva said.

Dogs like Jack can cost around $10,000. MPD said it’s grateful he was donated to the department.

“We usually run them about 10 to 11 years total,” Silva said. “He still has a lot of years left in service as long as he stays healthy.”

Jack is 3 years old and he still has some training left before he’ll be deployed on Maui. Officials say once he’s on the job, training will be constant.