Pubdate: Mon, 31 Dec 2001
Source: Florida Today (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Florida Today
Contact: http://www.floridatoday.com/forms/services/letters.htm
Website: http://www.flatoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/532
Author: Enrique Heredero

DEMAND HIGH FOR K-9 UNITS

Bomb Scares, Drugs Prompt Police To Get More Dogs

SEBASTIAN -- Justice, a male German Shepherd, stood on two feet, scratching 
at a bare patch of concrete on the tiled wall in a Sebastian River High 
School bathroom.

Using his flashlight, Sgt. Kent Campbell of the Indian River Sheriff's 
Office canine unit peered into two holes on the bare wall, stuck his hand 
in and pulled out a blue Marlboro cigarette box that contained a 
half-smoked joint and some marijuana seeds.

Justice, who giddily wagged his tail as he received a reward for his find 
in the girls' bathroom, was participating in the second joint drug sweep of 
Indian River County schools by area police dog units. In that sweep, 
officers arrested one student carrying a marijuana cigarette in his truck 
and confiscated numerous packs of cigarettes.

It's just one way in which K-9 units, as they are frequently called, have 
become increasingly essential in modern law enforcement work, officers say. 
Police dogs are also used to search for missing people, track suspects and 
- -- especially since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- to sniff out explosives.

"I've trained dogs for 30 years. Since Sept. 11, interest has tripled or 
even quadrupled. I get calls two times a week looking for a dog," said 
Detective Jan Scofield of the Titusville Police Department, a master 
trainer with the North American Police Work Dog Association and the 
National Narcotic Detector Dog Association.

"Everyone wants one now," Palm Bay police Sgt. Diana Blackledge said.

Blackledge's department expects to have a bomb dog ready to work by the end 
of January.

"The cool thing about our bomb dog is that it was a dog that somebody 
couldn't keep, so I started training him," she said.

At the Melbourne Police Department, Sgt. Bryan Bice said his department has 
had a bomb dog since October.

However, the high demand for dogs who can detect explosives has also 
attracted some fraudulent dog vendors, Scofield said.

"A lot of people are going to pounds and getting dogs and selling them to 
police agencies and security companies. Just like for anything else, there 
are frauds out there, but it's more prominent out there because of demand," 
Scofield said.

"I've had two or three guys bring good dogs, but they didn't meet the 
criteria for certification because they weren't trained properly. But we 
were able to straighten them out," he said.

Adequate training is essential for such dogs, he added. An under- trained 
dog might alert handlers after sniffing a substance such as copy-machine 
toner, which contains nitrates also present in explosives.

"If the dog is under-trained, you could end up calling the bomb squad for 
something like dish-washing soap or a small firecracker," he said.Tracking 
people

A more traditional use for tracking dogs is following people. In early 
November, Indian River County sheriff's deputies were pursuing a 31- 
year-old man who police said had stolen a neighbor's rain gutter and 
punched a 74-year old man in the face.

The suspect fled into the woods, and the dog units were called out.

Justice found -- and struggled with -- the suspect, who began to twist the 
dog's head.

Campbell hit the suspect once when he refused to let go of the dog; the 
animal was taken to a veterinarian to make sure he was OK.

"We also use them when we search for lost and missing persons," Campbell 
said. "One time, an Alzheimer's patient wandered off into the woods, fell 
and broke her hip."

"Our helicopters couldn't even pick up her heat signature, but our dogs led 
(us) right to her. If they hadn't found her, she would've died," he said.

In Brevard County, the Sheriff's Office has the distinction of having a 
bloodhound unit with seven dogs to complement its unit of nine German 
shepherds.

Steve Feaster, a field training officer with the Brevard Sheriff's Office, 
said the agency's bloodhounds are used primarily to track missing people 
and have been loaned to agencies in Orange, Osceola, Charlotte and Volusia 
counties.

Having a dog unit is essential to law enforcement, Feaster said.

"Patrol dogs save lives," he said. "Canines are necessary. You've got to 
have them because they do a lot of work. We've caught a lot of bad guys 
with them. Without them, we couldn't have done it."

Palm Bay's Blackledge said dogs are also used as diversions when 
apprehending a suspect or helping a suicidal person.

"If somebody has a gun and shoots himself, you want to help, but you don't 
want to approach him if he's still going to pick up the gun and shoot you."

"In Nebraska, a guy was angry with the police and led them on a pursuit. He 
suddenly stops and shoots at the cops. They return fire. The guy's lying 
next to the gun. He's twitching. So they have the dogs move him away from 
the gun," she said.

At the Sebastian Police Department, Chief Jim Davis said he's hoping to get 
a dog unit started by the end of 2002, but the City Council must sign off 
first.

"I'm interested in getting a general purpose dog that tracks suspects, 
locates drugs and missing persons," he said.

Davis said he has no plans of getting a bomb dog and would count on larger 
agencies to provide a bomb dog if the department should need one.

"We do have drugs, suspects and missing persons to track, so . . . we need 
a dog for those purposes," he said.Training

Campbell said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement requires officers 
who handle police dogs to go through 400 hours of schooling.

Upon completion, the officer has to show proficiency with dog handling.

Police dogs, which can come from Germany, Belgium or Czechoslovakia, can be 
purchased fully trained or partially trained, Campbell said, but he prefers 
the latter.

After purchase, the dog is trained to look for illegal drugs such as 
marijuana, cocaine, hash, heroin and crystal meth.

"We've found that fully trained dogs aren't as effective because since 
they're fully trained, it's hard to get rid of a bad habit the dog may 
have," he said.

Before going on duty, an officer and his dog spend five weeks side by side 
so they can bond.

The dog also has to pass annual FDLE certification. An officer has to show 
the canine obeys his handler, can bite or stand his ground when told and 
can successfully search a building, Campbell said.

In Melbourne, Bice said dogs undergo training several times a year to keep 
them up to par with their duties and sense of smell when apprehending a target.

"Once they start on an odor, that's what they stick to. They work that 
odor. They don't switch to another," he said. "If somebody is walking down 
the road and the dog is looking for someone, they don't have to worry about 
the dog unless they're the person we're looking for."

Campbell said a dog is retired after five years of service and the officer 
must show that he can handle a new dog.

Police dogs usually cost between $2,800 and $10,000, Campbell said. The 
highest the Indian River Sheriff's Office has ever paid for a dog is $4,200.

Scofield, who is in charge of the Titusville police dog unit, said it 
usually takes him four months to train a dog to be able to uncover bombs 
and other explosives.

"In my opinion, a lot of dogs are under-trained," Scofield said. "Training 
a dog is like programming a computer. What you put in is what you get out."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart