Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jun 2005
Source: Spectrum, The (UT)
Copyright: 2005 The Spectrum
Contact:  http://www.thespectrum.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2483
Author: Jennifer Weaver

DOGS HELP WITH INVESTIGATIONS

Man's Best Friend Becomes An Integral Part Of Local Police Work

CEDAR CITY - Man's best friend is a police officer's partner,
protector and effective tool of investigation. It also saves taxpayers
money, said K-9 law enforcement handlers Del Schlosser of the Iron
County Sheriff's Office and Jason Thomas of the Cedar City Police Department.

Both officers train their Belgian Malanois a minimum of eight hours a
week. They use the inside of the old hospital on Alta Mira Drive to
train their canines to locate illegal drugs. Methamphetamine, cocaine,
heroine and marijuana are packaged in air-tight containers to maintain
the integrity of their odors.

Schlosser and Thomas hide the packages using tongs and wearing gloves
in areas similar to where they've either confiscated narcotics while
on duty or have been told about by officers serving on the
Garfield/Iron Counties Narcotics Task Force. When the training is
complete, each drug is inventoried and stored.

"The dogs think it's playing, and they just want to find their toy,"
Thomas said.

It costs each law enforcement agency between $18,000 and $20,000 for
each dog. The purchase of in-car kennels help maintain the longevity
of the dogs because it regulates their temperatures and provides a
safe environment.

Acquiring the vehicles with kennels is proposed in upcoming budgets to
preserve the dogs' duties in using their olfactory senses, which are 1
million to 6 million times greater than humans. Their hearing is 15
times greater than a human, and their average speed is seven seconds
in the 100 yard dash - about 30 mph.

The man hours saved by using dogs comes from their accuracy in finding
a suspect, which is 93 percent of the time, compared with a two-man
officer team that averages a 59 percent success rate. In the time that
it takes the same two-man team to search a 138,995-square-foot
building of 148 minutes, 15 seconds, a dog can comb the area in 15
minutes, 51 seconds.

"A dog immediately de-escalates a situation because a man will go
after another man with intent to cause harm, but he won't go after a
dog," Schlosser said.

When the dogs get a hit, the term referred to when the dogs locate
drugs, they're given a fire hose or rubber toy as a reward. Their
demeanors are affectionate and playful with their handlers until it's
time to find dope. That's when they mean business, and they wildly
sniff and search. When they get a hit, their sniffs become more deep
and intense, they'll scratch and even bark.

Since Schlosser has been partnered with Caster, he's doubled the
deployments that had been documented over the last decade at the
sheriff's department. Ryan Bauer, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper out of
Beaver, said he's been working with a dog for seven years.

"My dog has literally located thousands of pounds of narcotics," he
said. "My dog is less intrusive on motorists because what takes me 30
minutes to search a vehicle he can do in five minutes. What is even
better is the positive public image these dogs can make for the
department. When we do demonstrations in the schools and throughout
the community, people remember us."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek