PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla., (WFLA) – The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office is taking every possible step to protect its four-legged partners from the heat.

Deputies said that heat stroke is a common cause of death amongst K9s in law enforcement, so they use advanced, life-saving technology to protect all 16 of their working dogs from the Florida heat.

Eddie is one of the 16 K9s from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. He is a 5-year-old German Shepherd and Belgian Malawa mix.

K9 Eddie is certified for patrol and EOD bomb detection. He answers every single call with his handler, Sergeant Mike Kilian.

“They’re so valuable to us. They are like part of our families,” Sgt. Kilian said.

K9s can spend a lot of time in the vehicles, which could be dangerous.

“If the engine fails or if the temperature goes up inside the truck, or the air condition fails, that could be deadly for the dogs,” Sgt. Kilian said.

To help ensure the safety of the dogs, the Sheriff’s Office uses the Hot-N-Pop Pro System.

If the truck gets above 85 degrees, an alarm and sirens go off, all the windows come down, a fan in the back gets activated, and the deputies get an alert on their phones.

“Also, it sends to dispatch a signal to our dispatcher that our truck is in emergency mode, and they can call us on our radio,” Sgt. Kilian said.

Sergeant Kilian said the alert system brings them peace of mind.

“I was running with another handler tracking an auto-theft suspect. When I was running, I could see a black cloud of smoke coming up. I was like what is that. My heat alarm went off, windows came down, so I ran back to the truck and was able to get Eddie out of the truck,” he said.

He said the Hot-N-Pop System helped save Eddie’s life that day.

“All the oil went into the engine block and caused the truck to stall, and all the smoke was coming through the air vents on Eddie, where he was inside the cabin of the truck. So, I got him out. He was obviously under a lot of distress; it was pretty bad,” Sgt. Kilian said.

The Sergeant said if a battery malfunctions or dies, it only takes 10-15 minutes for a dog to have a heat stroke, so they are constantly looking for updated technology and systems to ensure their dogs always make it home.