Drug-sniffing dog is the only police officer left in small New Mexico town
Policedogs keep people inside the kettle at a G-20 protest in London in 2009.
After its police chief resigned this week, the small town of Vaughn, N.M., has only one certified police officer left – and it’s a drug-sniffing dog.
The town of 450 originally had two human policemen in addition to the dog, but news broke this week that Police Chief Ernest "Chris" Armijo isn’t allowed to carry a gun because he owes tens of thousands of dollars in delinquent child support payments in Texas, the Los Angeles Times reported. Armijo left his post Wednesday.
Vaughn's other police officer, who pleaded guilty to charges of assault and battery last year, is not certified as a cop, the LA Times reported.
Noncertified officers can't carry guns and can’t make arrests, according to CBS News.
What's more, the dog, named Nikka, might not stick around to keep order in the town, since the former police chief takes care of him, CBS News reported.
Residents are already tired of the jokes at their town’s expense, CBS News reported. "There's just a whole lot of nothing going on here," Joyce Tabor, a cook at Penny’s Diner, said, according to CBS News. "We have very little crime. It's quiet. So this really doesn't matter."
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