NYPD K-9 Carries a 9/11 Hero’s Name
Daily Doggy News · Working Dogs
NYPD K-9 Carries a 9/11 Hero’s Name
Moira Ann protects New York’s crowded public spaces while carrying the name of NYPD Officer Moira Smith, a 9/11 hero remembered for helping others reach safety.
☆ Preferred Source
At concerts, sporting events and some of New York City’s busiest public spaces, a young black Labrador works beside an NYPD officer with a purpose that extends beyond the task in front of her.
Her name is Moira Ann.
The 1-year-old explosives-detection dog was named in honor of NYPD Officer Moira Smith, who died while helping people evacuate the World Trade Center’s South Tower on September 11, 2001. Smith was the only female NYPD officer killed in the attacks.
Twenty-five years later, the connection between them has become a living tribute: one officer remembered for guiding people toward safety and one working dog now helping protect the public in the city Smith served.
The NYPD recently highlighted Moira Ann among police dogs named for people who died on 9/11 or from illnesses connected to the attacks, according to reporting by the New York Post. The tribute brings renewed attention to the people behind the names—and to the working dogs carrying those names into a new generation of service.
Moira Ann Works Where Crowds Gather
Moira Ann is partnered with NYPD Officer Serhan Cambudak. Although the team can be assigned throughout the city, much of their work takes place in Manhattan. Their duties can bring them to concerts, stadiums, Times Square and other locations expecting large crowds.
That kind of environment asks a great deal of a dog. An explosives-detection K-9 must work through noise, movement, unfamiliar surfaces and countless competing scents while remaining responsive to the handler. The public may see only a dog walking beside an officer, but the team is performing a coordinated job built on training, repetition and trust.
Federal guidance illustrates the range of work performed by explosives-detection teams. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says detection dogs may search building interiors and exteriors, vehicles, parcels, luggage, outdoor spaces and large special-event venues. Moira Ann is an NYPD dog—not an ATF dog—but those examples help explain why canine teams are valuable in crowded public settings.
Cambudak described Moira Ann to the Post as energetic, curious, intelligent and eager to learn. Those qualities are not simply charming personality traits. In a working partnership, curiosity and a willingness to engage can become part of how a dog learns to search, respond and remain motivated.
Moira Ann also lives with Cambudak and his wife on Long Island. That detail offers a reminder that a K-9 partnership does not end when a public assignment is over. The dog and handler share a working rhythm, but they also share ordinary life away from the crowds.
A Family Meets the Dog Carrying Her Name
The name became especially personal when Cambudak met Moira Smith’s husband and daughter at an event at Madison Square Garden on September 10.
Smith’s husband, James, is a retired NYPD officer. Their daughter, Patricia, was only 2 years old when her mother died. According to the Post, the family wanted to know about the young Labrador—her personality, her behavior and what she was like to work with.
The following day, Moira Ann and Cambudak were assigned to the World Trade Center’s 25th-anniversary memorial. There, they encountered Smith’s family again.
For the family, Moira Ann is not an abstract departmental tribute. She is a living, breathing dog whose work repeatedly brings Officer Smith’s name into public view. Each introduction creates another opportunity for someone to ask who Moira Smith was and why an NYPD K-9 bears her name.
That is where the tribute becomes more than ceremonial.
The Officer Behind Moira Ann’s Name
Moira Smith was assigned to Manhattan’s 13th Precinct on the morning of September 11, 2001. After the North Tower was struck, she responded to the World Trade Center.
Her daughter Patricia later told NY1 that Smith transported witnesses from the scene to the precinct and then returned. At the South Tower, Smith helped guide people away from danger and toward safety. One of the most widely recognized photographs from that morning shows her assisting an injured man.
Smith was last seen evacuating people from the South Tower before it collapsed. She was 38 years old.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum preserves her recovered police badge and medal rack in its collection. The museum’s record states that she helped evacuees in the South Tower. The New York State Senate says she saved hundreds of lives and was posthumously awarded the NYPD Medal of Honor, the department’s highest honor.
She was one of 23 NYPD officers killed on September 11.
Why Working Dogs Make Powerful Living Memorials
A memorial usually asks people to pause. A working dog does something slightly different: she carries remembrance into motion.
Moira Ann’s assignments take Officer Smith’s name to the places where New Yorkers gather—to games, performances, public celebrations and commemorations. Her work connects memory with the continuing responsibility to protect people in shared spaces.
Dogs also make remembrance approachable. Someone who may pass a plaque without stopping might notice a black Labrador in a working harness. A child may ask the dog’s name. An adult may wonder why she has two names. The answer opens a path to Officer Smith’s story.
That does not make Moira Ann a symbol instead of a dog. She is an individual animal with her own temperament, training needs and relationship with her handler. Respecting that distinction matters. The tribute works because Moira Ann is performing meaningful service of her own—not because anyone expects a dog to recreate the life of the person she honors.
The Dog Must Remain at the Center of Her Own Story
It would be easy to tell this story entirely through the history of September 11. That history is essential, but Daily Doggy News is also telling the story of a young working dog at the beginning of her career.
At only 1 year old, Moira Ann has years of learning and service potentially ahead of her. Every crowded venue will present different distractions. Every search will depend on communication between her and Cambudak. Their effectiveness will come from what canine teams build over time: consistency, clear handling and confidence in one another.
The pink collar visible in the NYPD video also gives the public a glimpse of the dog inside the uniformed role. She can be a serious detection dog and still be energetic, curious and recognizably herself.
That balance is part of what makes the story resonate. The honor belongs to Officer Smith. The work belongs to Moira Ann and her handler. The connection between them keeps a name, a sacrifice and a commitment to public service from fading into history.
A Name That Continues to Serve
Moira Ann cannot know the full human history attached to her name. She does not need to.
Her responsibility is the work she has been trained to do: search carefully, communicate with her handler and help protect people in the places where they come together. The responsibility to remember belongs to us.
When someone sees Moira Ann working and asks about her name, Officer Moira Smith’s story is told again. People learn about the officer who returned to the World Trade Center, helped strangers reach safety and gave her life in service to others.
That is the quiet strength of this tribute. It looks backward with respect, but it also moves forward—on four paws, beside a handler, through the same city Officer Smith once protected.
