For Boyle County K9 Deputy Casey McCoy and his partner Niki, the “day” starts around 5 p.m. 

“If I didn’t do this, I don’t know what I’d be doing,” McCoy said, driving along. 

He and K9 6-year-old Niki maintain their patrol until about 3 a.m. some days — sometimes it’s later. A lot of those nights they’re the only ones on duty for several hours.

“Some nights are really slow,” McCoy said. “Some nights, you’re going from one call to the next, to the next.”

That can lead to some long and lonely hours, but they fill the time by making traffic stops, particularly looking for those behaving suspiciously.

There’s a lot of waiting involved, McCoy said, as he discreetly watches a house which has been the site of suspected drug activity. That’s the part people don’t realize, he said.

“You can’t just go knock on the door. You can, but you won’t get far.”

Instead, he waits and watches and builds a case.

Drugs are Niki’s specialty. The two have worked together since 2013, and she’s more than paid for herself, McCoy said. He’s been with the Boyle County Sheriff’s Office since 2012 and has been a police officer since 2010, after starting as a probation and parole officer.

There are two other K9s and K9 deputies working for the sheriff’s office.

They get called to assist a Danville officers in an investigation. Niki circles the car, sitting outside one of the rear doors. That’s an indication there are or have been drugs on the car and gives police probable cause to search.

After completing the stop, McCoy explains it turned out to be a pretty big find for Niki.

“It’s like your kid scoring a touchdown,” he said.

He answers other calls — a burglary alarm drop, an assault — and conducts more traffic stops.

But drugs are their bread and butter — McCoy said drugs are the cause of 85 to 90 percent of the calls the office sees.

Sometimes, the exchanges happen in public, he said, at gas stations or in department stores. While that seems risky, McCoy said it’s done so it’s not a noticeable when two people meet up.

It helps, he said, when people report activity when they see it. Those reports help deputies build a patter, but too often witnesses wait to report it, or don’t say anything at all. 

He said he hates it when there are kids in a car or house where he finds drugs. In some instances, he’s found drugs that have been hidden on or around the kids.

“(The kids) don’t deserve that,” he said. “I think I’m so passionate about drugs because my kids live here. My friends’ kids live here.”