MIAMI – The city of Miami's newest employee, Freckles, is a four-legged bundle of energy with a pretty big task at hand.
Freckles is employed as the Miami Police Department’s official support dog and mascot.
"We just got her from the Humane Society. She's a rescue," Miami police Chief Jorge Colina said. "We picked her up on Friday. She's about 8 months old. The name Freckles she already had, so we didn't want to change it."
For her first week, Freckles took her job pretty seriously, finding co-workers who might have been stressed or down and providing a smile for a small fee of belly rubs.
"So she'll come to work every day, and we will bring her to different districts. So we brought her to the special need victims, communications, so employees can spend time (and) everyone feels better," Colina said.
"When these officers are engaged in their cases, you know, many of them are stressed out. Freckles provides that therapeutic remedy," Maj. Alberto Guerra said.
The Labrador-terrier mix already has an official employee photo and will soon have her own city of Miami police uniform.
"We haven't been able to bring her in the community yet, but as we do, we know she'll be an instant hit," Guerra said.