COLUMBIA--They reflect the best of the State Law Enforcement Division, willing to take a call day or night, work hours with noses down until the job is done for no more reward than a "Good boy" or "Good girl."

They are SLED's bloodhounds, and even in a day where scientists and lab technicians are the newest crime fighting heroes, one of the oldest police techniques around still has its place, Chief Robert Stewart said.

"It's the hallmark of SLED," Stewart said. "We call it the hunter's heart. They just don't give up."

The hounds have tracked people through the Upstate woods, the Lowcountry swamps and the Midlands sandhills. And once they hit on a trail, a suspect can shed clothes, drop pepper behind them or even take a shower. But unless he climbs into a car and drives away, the bloodhounds will still find him.

"Take away things out of our control and I think our success rate is in the upper 90s," said Lt. Fred Powell, leader for the bloodhound teams.

Along with the dogs, SLED often searches for suspects with heat sensors and night-vision infrared equipment. Each technique has its place. A suspect hearing a helicopter overhead may try to stay still to avoid be spotted, making it easier for a bloodhound to find him, Stewart said.

"I always find it interesting we use one of the oldest police techniques available with the bloodhounds along with one of the most sophisticated technologies like the infrared cameras," Stewart said.

The dogs aren't true bloodhounds. SLED takes bloodhounds, mixes in some redbone coonhound blood to give the dogs more stamina and make them stronger and more agile, Stewart said.

"And every third generation we get some blue tick coonhound in them to get that distinctive howl," the chief said.

Enter SLED's pens at their suburban Columbia headquarters and the dogs' yipping and barking bounces off the concrete walls, making conversation impossible.

That noise becomes an advantage in the woods. The bloodhounds don't start baying and howling until they lock on a scent. But on the trail, the noise never stops. "Just imagine hearing that on your heels on a still, moonless night in some thick woods," Stewart said.

The dogs don't attack. Instead, they just try to keep up with the subject, staying alongside, tails wagging, barking and howling until they are told to stop.

"They might be chasing an armed murderer tonight, but tomorrow they might be finding a lost child or an Alzheimer's patient," Stewart said.

They work in all types of conditions. Stewart himself remembers chasing a suspect through the swamp. One of SLED's most famous dogs, Sandy, was leading him through the waist-deep water, sniffing where the suspect put his hands on trees and branches to pull him through the muck.

"That dog would swim tree to tree, howling as he swam. We finally came up to a bridge, and there was the suspect, hiding underneath," Stewart said.

One time, an escapee from Columbia's old downtown prison made it to some train tracks and, with the dog on his heels, climbed on top of a parked rail car. When the agents caught up, the suspect was running from one end of the car to the other trying to lose the bloodhound, Stewart said.

SLED's bloodhound team started not long after the state police agency was founded in 1947. Legend has it longtime Chief J.P. Strom bought the first two dogs himself, Stewart said.

The agency raises and trains its own dogs, spending about $300,000 a year on animals and agents. "I don't know anyone else in the country with a program like ours," said Lt. Powell, who has worked on the bloodhound team for nearly two decades.