A Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office K9 has retired.
Aco, whose full name is Aco Vom Brachpetal, officially retired just before midnight on New Year’s Eve.
He worked for the sheriff’s office for six years with his handler, Senior Deputy Ken Rushing.
During that time, he is credited with more than 200 suspect finds and give-ups, 31 physical apprehensions and sniffing out and locating thousands of pounds of narcotics, according to the sheriff’s office.
He was born in Germany in 2010 and trained at a police dog academy in Ventura County before coming to work for the sheriff’s office in 2012 with Deputy Rushing.
“He jumped up to go to work. We were constantly training and all of that hard work paid off. Aco’s desire and his drive was channeled into what our objective was. He wanted to catch the bad guy even more than I did,” Rushing said.
Aco received a retirement certificate, rawhide bone and round of applause at this week’s Santa Barbara Country Board of Supervisors’ meeting.
He continues to live with the Rushing family.
The sheriff’s office is in the process of looking for a replacement Aco.
