The Bismarck Police Department will now have to respond to situations where bombs could be involved without an explosive-detection dog.

Bismarck Police Deputy Chief Keith Witt said Officer Daniel Hughes, who owned his explosive-detection dog, Annie Oakley, has resigned from the department.

"We're sorry to see Dan and his dog go," Witt said.

He said Annie Oakley also was the only certified bomb dog in North Dakota, other than dogs sometimes stationed at the Air Force bases.

Before Hughes joined the Bismarck Police Department in 2005, the department had not had a bomb dog since the 1980s, Witt said. Hughes owned Annie Oakley, so the department did not have to purchase the dog, which Witt said was fortunate.

"We were able to utilize the resource that was there,"he said.

"A canine is valuable at times to do a quick search," Witt said.

Annie Oakley would sniff around the airport when necessary, and she also did a sweep of the state Capitol before the Legislature began, Witt said.

However, a well-trained canine also is "an expensive tool to maintain," he said. "It's a hard expense to justify."

The department has no immediate plans to get a new bomb dog, Witt said. The dog was called out to only one incident where authorities feared that a bomb was present, he said.

"That was a situation we could have handled without the dog, but it made it quicker," he said.

The department's bomb squad is certified to national level standards, and the community will not be any less safe because of no longer having a bomb dog, Witt said.

"We don't feel it really hinders our ability to respond to situations where explosives may be involved," Witt said.

Liz Brocker, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation does not have a bomb dog.

Grand Forks Police Lt. Jim Remer said his department has researched getting a dog but does not have one. If they need one, they ask the Air Force base if they can use one, he said.

Fargo Police Capt. Dave Todd said his department has three patrol dogs but no bomb dogs.

"I suppose there could be a use for one,"he said.

However, trained police dogs can cost around $16,000 to buy, plus an officer has to be paid extra to care for the dog, he said.

"It gets to be a pretty expensive venture," Todd said.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)