Mal, a 1-year-old Belgian Malinois, now works in bomb detection for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Her path to the role began when officers found her tied up and abandoned in a backyard.
Mal was seven months old when Fort Lauderdale police officers found her tied up in a backyard, according to WSVN 7News. With no owner identified, Broward County Animal Care took custody of her and placed her in a shelter while waiting for someone to come forward. Nobody did, the outlet reported.
Officer Dougle Ng-A-Kien fostered Mal and trained her himself after wondering whether a shelter dog could become a police dog, WSVN reported. She joined the department after completing its evaluations on a recent Thursday.
From Stray to Sworn-In K-9
WSVN reported that Ng-A-Kien said Mal met the standards expected of dogs acquired from professional vendors and passed the department’s evaluations. She received a badge after clearing probation. Mal has been on duty since July, officials said, and they described her work as wonderful.
What the Reporting Confirms About Mal
WSVN’s account identifies bomb detection as Mal’s assignment and says she has been on duty since July, but it does not establish an exact start date or document a separate operational certification. The Transportation Security Administration says its canine teams are continually assessed on skills including recognizing explosive odors and conducting systematic searches; that describes TSA’s program, not Fort Lauderdale’s evaluation of Mal.
Ng-A-Kien told WSVN that Mal is his second work dog. Her assignment is bomb detection for the department.
Part of a Broader Shift Toward Shelter Dogs
Mal's path mirrors a growing trend in American law enforcement. Universal K9 has been training shelter dogs for police work since 2010, according to Police Magazine, which notes that shelter dogs in these programs are primarily trained for detection and tracking roles rather than apprehension work. The outlet also points out that imported Belgian Malinois can cost up to $25,000, while a rescue dog often costs under $200 — a cost gap that helps explain why departments are increasingly looking to shelters first.
Fort Lauderdale isn't the only department making that bet. In Texas, the Fort Worth Police Department rescued a dog named Rock from the city's own animal shelter and trained him as a K-9 narcotics officer, according to CBS News. Rock, an 18-month-old German Shepherd handled by Sgt. Charles Hubbard, can alert to heroin, methamphetamine, crack cocaine, powder cocaine and marijuana. Because he was already in Fort Worth's own system, he came to the department at no cost, compared with the roughly $11,000 most K-9s run.
Mal’s path from a shelter to bomb-detection work began with Ng-A-Kien’s decision to foster and train her. The account offers one example of a shelter dog moving into a specialized law-enforcement role.
