Canine How and Why?

I would like to take a brief moment to tell you a little about myself and where I work. I currently work in the canine unit for the St. Paul Police Department in Minnesota. Our city has a population of 250,000 and estimated daily migrational population of 50,000 more. The k-9 unit has 21 people assigned. We also have a Lieutenant and a Sergeant as the administrative part of the unit. All of our dogs are German Shepherd Dogs and are assigned to patrol duties. Six of these dogs are cross trained to narcotics and four are cross trained to explosives.

The St. Paul Police Canine Unit has its own facility with 12 inside and outside runs. Along with Minneapolis we are the regional training areas. As for myself I have been a police officer for twenty-five years, 18 of those have been in the canine unit. For seven of those years I assisted with the training of Patrol, Tracking, Narcotics and Explosive dogs. I currently work one of the cross trained narcotics' dogs.

Canine's first came to this area in the mid 1950's. I remember seeing them when I was in school. That is about all I remember from that time. The next time canines were introduced was in the early 1970's in Minneapolis. Mike Fisher from that city started their program and he went to Washington, D.C. to become a trainer and learn more about police dogs. He came back and while training his people started training Jim Cocchiarilla from St. Paul.

Soon we had our own unit of two members. Both cities grew until our current strengths. You can see how canines migrated to Minnesota. It happened that way all across the United States in those days and still does today. Cops teaching Cops. Even then we still had to persuade our administrators of the need to have this crime fighting tool.

The subject of K-9 How and Why is an appropriate topic for us to write about. There are several steps you must take and many things you must look at before you can even approach your administration to start a unit. Of course foremost would be the WHY. This will be the first question asked by your superiors; why do we need a canine unit? You must be able to convince them why they should spend the money it will take. Lets look at several of these arguments.

Besides money the most worrisome thought to an administrator is the idea that they will be losing someone from patrol. It is extremely hard for them to realize that they are just adding another tool in the fight against crime. You must convince them that you will still do those same things that you did before, but this time you have an additional crime fighting tool, much like the tools you already carry on your belt. This must be a convincing argument. In my unit we must constantly prove our worth to the administration. It is an ongoing thing and we cover that basically with a log.

We are computerized in the sense that we have a main computer that logs all the calls that we are the primary or the immediate backup for. This is enough you say, no way! We also have our own logs that we keep to put down all incidents in which we use the dog. At the end of each month we send forward this log and together with the computer entry's the administration can see that we still do patrol duties along with the canine related incidents. In St. Paul we handle calls just like the rest of the Patrol Division.

Canines can be a very big time saving tool. Imagine how many officers it takes to search some of the bigger buildings in your city or town. There are several studies that have shown that the use of police service dogs in building searches has greatly decreased the time spent searching and the probability of finding a felon is greatly increased.

The use of a police canine for narcotic's detection is one of the most popular uses of canines today. Whether you have a dual purpose canine or a single purpose dog. A single purpose dog is one just trained for narcotics, while a dual purpose is also trained for patrol work. Imagine the usefulness and even the popularity of your dog when they start finding drugs and drug money. Won't your administration be popular then. Of course this only applies if you have a drug problem in your community. In many situations when you find money, your department has a reasonable expectation to receive some of that after the case has ended.

The presence of a police canine in many instances defuses many potential problems just by their mere presence. An example is a large unruly crowd that patrol vehicles have been sent to disperse. The arrival of the canine can cause that group to disperse without even getting the dog out of the car.

Now that they are interested because you have shown them they will not be losing an officer, they will ask "How much will this cost me?". The answer varies to some degree. In quite a few departments these days, money or the lack of money is a hot topic. The thing you need to know is that the more you keep the actual cost down the better off you will be. What I mean by this is the actual physical transfer of money. What I don't mean is your paid time. Let me explain. When you go in to ask to go to a school they will say, how much will it cost. All they are interested in is the actual cost of the school, not your time. Time usually is not a problem, because they have to pay you anyway, whether you are working or in school. Now here are some ways you can get the money to pay for your dog, the school you attend, the police vehicle that you will have to equip, the vet care, your dog-related equipment (leashes, etc.) and your dog food.

In Minnesota the ways that officers fund their programs are:

• Asking Moose, Elks, VFW, or any of those types of organizations if they will donate moneys to help. These groups are very civic oriented and are usually willing to give moneys to help. You should clear this type of activity with your administration. They could possibly be looking at these groups for other things.
• Pet stores can be asked to donate dog food for the canine (get quality food).
• Vets will also offer discounted or sometimes free service for the dog.

The businesses and people in your community want to be involved if you let them. It is a common thing in our communities to involve the people in the picking of the dog's name. Once the community is involved you will have less resistance to the use of the dog.

Once you have shown the why and the how you can go on to the actual decisions of what breed, what method of schooling you wish and then how to best deploy the canine. I believe the best way to find out this type of information is contacting several police agencies that have canines and asking them what breed to use and what types of schools to use. They have in the past had to make these decisions and you can benefit for their experience. It's best to get several opinions, and don't be afraid of asking the bigger agencies. They usually will be able to also help you define the uses and operating procedures that you should follow.

In Minnesota the vast majority of canines are donated dogs. I mean canines that citizens gave for whatever reasons to the two training agencies. These agencies then perform various initial tests, including an x-ray of the dog's hips, to pick the best candidates.