BATON ROUGE - The LSU Police Department has added two new explosive-detecting K-9's to its force.

The new dogs, Jazz and Weeks, will be joining two other dogs already with the department. According to a release, the new dogs are "vapor wake" dogs. The new dogs were trained to detect explosives and other substances even when the targets are moving. 

Traditional explosive detection dogs are trained to respond to static objects, vapor wake dogs are trained to respond to the odor itself, even while it’s in motion. The dogs can follow the threat to its source.

"The safety of our campus community is our number one priority,” said LSU Chief of Police Bart Thompson. “We are continually looking for ways to enhance our safety resources and prevention methods. When looking at best practices around the country, Vapor Wake dogs are being used by the largest organizations in the country such as Walt Disney World. With all the large-scale events taking place on our campus on a regular basis, [us] getting these dogs and having our officers trained to handle them was another important step for campus safety.”

The Tiger Athletic Foundation, Claude Pennington and the Irene W. and C. B. Pennington Foundation provided funding for the Vapor Wake dogs, their training and the K-9 vehicles.