Dog comforts crime victims in and out of court

Special K-9 requested by District Attorney's Office

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is using a dog to help fight crime.

This dog is not your typical K-9 officer, though. Prosecutor Tyler Dunman said Radar, a five-year-old yellow Labrador Retriver, works with victims, especially children. 

Dunman said Radar's job is to comfort victims in and out of the courtroom as they deal with the trauma they experienced from violent crimes. 

The Texas Hearing and Service Dog group in Austin adopted Radar from the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter and trained him. 

Pam Traylor with the District Attorney's Office said she requested a service dog for their office two years ago. Now they have Ranger. Traylor said he is already proving himself worthy of the special role. 

"Recently he testified with a child and he just sat underneath the stand with her while she held his leash and testified for about an hour," said Traylor. "He was able to just lay there and give the comfort she needed to make it through."