Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : 4-Footed Deputy Patrols the Antelope Valley Beat : Law enforcement: After a two-year lapse, the area is again served by a full-time K-9 unit.

Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Lieberman figures he has found himself the perfect patrol partner: She’s quiet with short brown hair, understands Dutch and enjoys long walks.

Lieberman’s partner is a 3-year-old Belgium Malnois, named Citha, who was trained in Holland and is an expert at tracking scents, particularly human scents. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department paid $5,000 for the dog.

Citha and Lieberman this week became the Sheriff’s Department first K-9 unit in two years to be assigned full time to the Antelope Valley.

Citha and Lieberman are a valuable addition to the Sheriff’s Department in this north Los Angeles County region, said Capt. Tony Welch, commander of the Antelope Valley Sheriff’s Station. The dog can help deputies track down a suspect who has escaped from a crime scene on foot.

“The more tools we have, the harder it is to commit crime,” Welch said.

The K-9 unit will work an afternoon patrol shift in Lancaster and Palmdale but will be on 24-hour call, Welch said.

Even before she was stationed here, Citha was used twice in the Antelope Valley, where sheriff’s dogs have over the last several months helped locate suspected robbers in a jewelry store heist and find the suspects from a hostage situation.

Since January of 1992, when the Antelope Valley’s former K-9 unit was transferred, deputies in the Antelope Valley have had to wait for the specially trained dogs to be brought in from Los Angeles.

The Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcement Bureau has 13 dogs, including Citha, Sgt. Bill Thompson said. Ten of the dogs work in the Los Angeles Basin while Gorman, Catalina and the Antelope Valley are home to the others. Other sheriff’s units, such as narcotics and the bomb squad, also have dogs, with nearly three dozen German shepherds and Belgium Malnois on the force.

“The handler provides reasoning, the dog provides scents,” said Thompson.

Lieberman, a deputy for more than nine years, has long wanted to be the human half of a K-9 unit. Citha has been his partner for four months, with much of that time devoted to training and relationship-building between the two.

Citha and Lieberman remain together even after their 40-hour patrol shift is complete. “She’s a happy-go-lucky dog,” he said of his four-legged partner, who stays with Lieberman at his Santa Clarita home. “She’s a good partner to work with.”