PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. - Heatstroke is the most common cause of death for law enforcement K-9s, Sergeant Mike Kilian with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office’s K-9 Unit, said.

It’s part of the reason the agency has technology installed in every K-9 cruiser that sounds an alarm if it gets too hot. It has already saved one K-9, Sergeant Kilian’s K-9, Eddie.

"I was driving an older truck," Sergeant Kilian said. "It had a lot of mileage on it and one of our handlers got out on a track for a stolen vehicle. "I left Eddie in the truck, went out with the handler tracking, and I could see, probably about five minutes into the track, a large plume of smoke coming from the area where my truck was parked," he said.

The alarm on Kilian’s vehicle went off as the temperature inside jumped, and he t

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