Bristol County Sheriff’s Office leads training of Norfolk County K9 team as first phase of new collaboration

Canine Lucy is a good girl, but she’s bad news for drug dealers in Norfolk County.

Officer Bruce Maggio Jr. and his canine partner graduated from the drug detection academy on Thursday morning with officials from both the Norfolk County and Bristol County Sheriff’s Offices on hand to celebrate the milestone.

Officer Maggio and Lucy spent 10 weeks on Faunce Corner Road in Dartmouth training with the Bristol K9 team. Lucy’s drug detection program was led by Bristol County Lt. Kenneth Almeida and Sgt. William Dillingham in the first of many future collaborations between the Norfolk and Bristol sheriff’s departments.

Norfolk County Sheriff’s Office K9 Officer Bruce Maggio and his partner, Lucy, recently graduated from the Bristol County K9 drug detection program.

“The spirit of cooperation is alive and well among our Sheriff’s Offices,” Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick McDermott said at Thursday’s graduation ceremony in Dartmouth. “This is a great opportunity for both Bristol and Norfolk K9 teams, and we look forward to more successes down the road.”

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson praised the cooperation between sheriff’s departments and pledged to work together with Norfolk as much as possible.

“One of the great things about the Office of Sheriff is forging partnerships,” he said. “We will continue to stay on that road and strengthen our partnerships while our agencies work together to support all the public safety needs of our citizens and our communities.”

Lucy is a 1-year-old, 45-pound black Labrador retriever who is trained to detect eight different odors that come from dangerous drugs like heroin, fentanyl, cocaine and others. Officer Maggio spent eight years as a corrections officer in Norfolk before recently joining the K9 unit.

“Lucy’s taught me so much and this whole experience has been amazing. We can’t wait to hit the ground running and help keep Norfolk County as safe as possible,” Officer Maggio said.

Moving forward, Bristol County will host the monthly in-service training for the Norfolk K9 unit and will be the lead agency on training any new dogs it acquires. K9 teams from Norfolk will join others from the New Bedford, Fall River and Fairhaven Police Departments, as well as the New Bedford Fire Department, in the training group in Bristol County.