K9 Options for Law Enforcement

Deborah Palman

The use of K-9 teams in law enforcement has evolved over the years, producing dog teams which provide many types of services. Unfortunately, some law enforcement administrators and officers picture a police K-9 as an ill tempered dog which bites everyone it encounters and barks at anyone approaching its vehicle. While this "option" of a police dog function is available and valuable to departments servicing high crime areas, other types of dogs currently exist to assist law enforcement. Police administrators can find and obtain dog teams which fit almost any political climate or law enforcement need. With the proper selection of the handler and raw dog, and suitable training with a skilled and experienced trainer, teams can be created to fit any need. This article is a summary of the training "options" currently being used by law enforcement agencies.

The Patrol Dog

The traditional patrol dog in America is a "find and bite" dog which finds suspects by tracking or searching and bites and holds them. These dog teams form the bulk of patrol dogs today, but many have expanded their talents to include the location of evidence items as well as suspects. Many are also cross trained to be detector dogs which locate drugs or other contraband. Cross training is an excellent use of resources, but not all dogs which are capable of being trained for patrol work make good detector dogs.

Although the courts have recognized that properly trained patrol dogs are non-deadly force, the temperament and training of the dog affects how much "force" is applied by the dog in actual situations. A large, aggressive dog which is hard to control is going to be much more of a liability in certain situations and should be utilized with proper care by its handler. Although this type of dog may seem to be nothing but a liability to some chiefs, it is the dog to use to prevent injuries to officers when apprehending a dangerous subject. If deadly force is used instead of a capable K-9, the department may be exposed to even larger lawsuits for wrongful death instead of a law suit for a dog bite.

For a dog of good working temperament that is naturally friendly or tolerant of strangers, the style of training will determine what type of force it applies when executing an apprehension. The "find and bark" is a training option which is sometimes called "minimal force" training because the dog finds and guards a passive suspect by standing off and barking, biting only when the person tries to flee or attack. Departments could aslo use dogs trained for handler protection only which would always find victims or suspects in a friendly manner. However, most departments utilizing dogs to find criminals realize that these searches expose the dog and handler to much greater risk than regular patrol officers. Because of this they choose to utilize dogs which are apprehension trained either in a find and bite or find and bark manner.

Law enforcement administrators do not avoid all liability by having dogs which are not "bite trained." All dogs will bite if provoked or placed in situations where they feel fear. Even if they do not attack intentionally, their claws scratch people and objects, and their barking and appearance can frighten children or adults afraid of dogs. The larger dogs may knock over children or the elderly when playing or greeting. The best control of liability is the wise choice of the dog, training program, and, most of all, a handler who will properly train and utilize the dog so that it does not become a liability. A police dog will only reflect the personality of the handler who trains him because the handler provides leadership for the dog. An aggressive, insecure handler will end up with an aggressive and volatile dog, and the confident, considerate officer will have a friendly and controllable dog.

The Scent Specialty Dog

The dog's scenting ability is the one function that human officers cannot duplicate. Many departments employ dogs which specialize in scent work such as tracking. Bloodhounds set the standard as tracking dogs, but they are not normally utilized for other functions such as evidence recovery, even while on track. This is unfortunate because they can easily be trained to locate evidence using a food reward. Other working and hunting breeds can be trained to track and find evidence quite successfully and will usually work much more effectively off lead than bloodhounds traditionally do. In the Maine Warden Service, we have used dogs to find shell casings, guns, portable radios (usually lost by fellow wardens), knives, wallets, clothing and all sorts of other items.

he warden K-9 teams spend considerable time working with shell casings because they are the subject of many of our searches. Most of our "scent" dogs are trained to track, locate evidence, and have one "specialty" detection function such as fish detection, air scent search and rescue or cadaver search. A comparable dog which works for a rural or suburban police department could track, locate evidence and detect narcotics. The advantage of a scent dog is that it can concentrate on its specialties and not have to spend the considerable time needed for apprehension or protection work.

There is also reduced liability with the lack of protection training, and breeds such as Labrador Retrievers, which are perceived by the public to be less threatening than the usual "police dog breeds," can be used with great success. These dog teams excel in public relations work. As with the patrol dog, the quality of the team will depend largely on the handler, dog, and the quality of training.

The Detector Dog

Dogs can be trained to detect almost any substance. Narcotics, explosives, gas and other hydrocarbons (for arson investigation) are the items police K-9s are usually trained for, but dogs have been trained to find cadaver scent, fish, wildlife parts, songbirds and natural gas leaks. In Europe, police K-9 trainers have been utilizing "scent identification" dogs which will match an individual suspect's scent to the scent on evidence left at a crime scene when the evidence is presented to the dog during a scent "lineup" procedure. While this has not been practiced extensively in this country, it points out that dogs can be trained to use their scenting abilities in almost any way we can imagine. If the economics of the situation make it feasible, a dog can be trained to detect whatever an agency desires.

Many different breeds can be used for detector work, allowing a department to utilize a dog breed perceived as being friendly by the public. A dog to be trained for detector work must have considerable retrieving and hunting desire or it will not do a good job. The screening and choice of individual dogs for detector work, like that of all dogs for police service, is best left up to an experienced individual, preferably the one who is going to direct the training of the dog.

Civilian and Volunteer Teams

Many highly qualified and professional quality dog teams exist outside of law enforcement agencies. The majority of these train and operate in the search and rescue field and are available for call by law enforcement agencies or other agencies in charge of search and rescue. Unfortunately, many departments will not even consider the use of these teams because of liability reasons. A good civilian K-9 team can be "deputized" or hired as a part time employee if that is appropriate. While civilian teams certainly cannot be used for searches of a criminal nature, they can be useful in the investigation of missing persons and for searching large areas of woods for evidence.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has an extensive volunteer program which assists in many different ways such as in safety instruction, nuisance animal control, equipment maintenance and search and rescue. The department has purchased a liability policy which covers the activities of these volunteers and relies on them heavily for its recreational safety programs and searches for lost persons.

The Maine Warden Service (enforcement division of the Department) plans and manages searches for lost persons, utilizing wardens and special volunteer search and rescue teams for hazardous functions while volunteers trained in basic ground search cover most of the area being searched for a lost person.

Qualified volunteer search and rescue air-scent and tracking dog teams exist across the US. The National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR) at 4500 Southgate Place, Suite 100, Chantilly, VA, Tel. 703-222-6277, maintains a list of teams and some information about them. These teams are usually available for no cost to requesting agencies, but should have investigative and informational support from the agency.

Search and rescue tracking teams provide the same tracking services as police tracking dogs with emphasis on long, contaminated tracks and searches. Air-scent dog teams locate victims and evidence by air-born scent rather than by following the person's track. They are very useful in situations where there is no place to start a track, or the scene is so old that a tracking dog is no longer useful. They can do general searches of natural areas for victims or evidence, and disaster trained dogs can search rubble or collapsed buildings for victims. All the competent search and rescue teams have had training in scene preservation and work with the finding of "clues" "– evidence or sign which would help find the lost person - as part of their work in the search and rescue field. Air-scent dogs will usually find dead victims as readily as they will find live ones. Air-scent dogs can also be trained to locate drowning victims in water of almost any depth.

At most lost or missing person scenes, a local tracking dog should be utilized first. This can be a police K-9 trained in tracking or a special tracking team. Usually, however, if this track does not produce any results, the police K-9 officer can only do short area searches with his dog. Police K-9s are usually not trained in air-scent search and rescue work, a field which requires special training beyond that of normal police dog training. Even if the department can spare the officer from his law enforcement duties, shifts and overtime limitations often cause the officer to quit the search. Volunteer search and rescue dogs are not limited by shifts or other duties.

hey will often search for days if needed, calling in replacements from their unit. Unlike most police K-9s, their dogs are specially trained to work at searches effectively for long periods of time. In addition, most search and rescue units have highly experienced members who have had training in search planning and strategy and can offer valuable help to local investigators and planners. Some of these units come with their own search management and support teams and are capable of running their own searches.

Some agencies and jurisdictions have established partnerships with volunteer search and rescue units. In some parts of Canada, local ground (meaning groups of volunteers without and with dogs) search units are very active and have special members who respond to reports of missing persons at the request of a police investigator. The search and rescue team investigator and the police officers decide if the incident is a search requiring the services of the search and rescue unit. If it does, then the ground search investigator is at the search from the very beginning, gaining valuable investigative and planning time. The department provides local investigative help and guidance, but the search and rescue unit plans and executes the majority of search.

An agency wishing to utilize civilian volunteer teams needs to do some research before calling the teams for a search. Teams can be located through NASAR and should be evaluated by the department, as not all teams claiming to be search and rescue dog teams are competent. The units should have written standards and testing procedures to determine "mission readiness."

The standards and tests should include tests for working under all the conditions the dog teams will be expected to search - in thick brush, at night, for hours at a time, etc. The handlers need special training in land navigation, clue awareness, survival, etc., all subjects which are included in most search and rescue unit requirements. Qualified units bring most everything they need with them such as radios, transportation (unless they are flying in), clothing, dog food and survival gear. Local departments may have to provide radios with their frequency and maps of the area. The local agency should provide investigative help for the teams to advise them of the information acquired so far and to investigate leads the dog teams will uncover. A liaison should be provided for the team for all the time they are searching, which will be day and night in cases where the victim is in danger.

Establishment of K-9 Teams

Not all the training options mentioned in this article are available locally for all law enforcement departments. K-9 teams need regular in-service training, so even though they may be able to travel some distance to receive their initial specialized training, they need to meet with experienced trainers for periodic in-service training. "Periodic" should mean not less than once a month. Even with this schedule, the handler will have to do considerable training on his own to maintain his dog. If the department cannot give the team the time and money to travel then their options may be limited to what is available locally.

However, a dedicated and ambitious handler can accomplish much on his own when given encouragement from his department, and often local K-9 trainers can be persuaded to provide services which they do not normally provide. The key to a good K-9 unit is to do research on all the options that are available to the department and fit them to the department's needs rather than just accepting what the "local expert" may have to offer if that is not what the department wants. If a K-9 unit provides efficient service to its department, it will be successful and supported.