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TAKING A BITE OUT OF CRIME

SERIOUS BUSINESS IS ALL A GAME FOR DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS

This Is the Second Article in a Three-Part Series.

PRESCOTT VALLEY - Every Wednesday, Yavapai County Sheriff's Deputy Randy Evers and his K-9 partner, Neo, meet other K-9 teams from around the county at the Prescott Valley Police Department for a training session.

Officers and their partners from the Sheriff's Office, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley, Cottonwood, and the Camp Verde Marshal's Office all train together as a team.

"This is interagency cooperation at its best," says YCSO Sgt.  Jeff Jaeger, who heads up the Sheriff's K-9 unit.

"There's no agency lines when we come out here."

The training varies.  Sometimes, the group meets at night, when area businesses, closed for the day, give them the keys to their buildings so the dogs can practice finding drugs - or suspects - hidden within.

Other days, like this one, they meet in the afternoon and practice obedience and agility work on the PVPD front lawn.  The well-seasoned dogs don't even acknowledge each other; one exercise has the officers leading their K-9 as the dog steps over other dogs, which lay calmly on the grass.

There are two kinds of police canines in the group, Jaeger said: narcotics dogs and patrol dogs.  "I hate the word 'attack,'" he says, "'Attack dogs.' Please don't call them that.  It's not like that."

Some dogs do both, he says, but the Sheriff's Office concentrates its efforts on narcotics-sniffing dogs.

Jaeger has a unique role.  The only member of the unit who does not have a dog, Jaeger does all of the administrative work for the other four K-9 deputies, freeing them up for more fieldwork.

"It's the best job I've had in 17 years with the Sheriff's Office," he says.  "I get to take care of everything these guys need.  It's just great."

After about an hour, Evers and Deputy Harry Shrum load up and drive to the Prescott Valley maintenance yard, where other officers hide drugs in vehicles and see how quickly Neo and Shrum's K-9, Bo, can find them.

Evers leads Neo, a Belgian malinois, over to the line of trucks.  To the dog, locating drugs is a game, one in which they're rewarded with praise for each find.

Distractions are part of the game, too.  "We use food, dog toys, detergent, dryer sheets," Evers says, in an effort to teach the K-9 that only drugs count toward a reward.

Each dog and handler go through a nine-week academy in Tucson, conducted by the Department of Corrections, before they start their police career, Evers says, but "training is ongoing.  You never stop." He says that the YCSO narcotics dogs must do four hours of recurrent training each week, but he and the other members of the units routinely put in as much as nine hours per week.

As Evers opens the door of one truck, the smell of fast food hits him.  Neo clearly notices, too, but he knows the food won't lead to a reward.  He sniffs around the cab, and, for a moment, it appears he's found something, but he turns away, and Evers leads him out of the cab.

As he rounds the front of the truck, Neo stops and alerts on the grille.  He begins scratching at it, and he's right - hidden in the grille is a cotton ball that's been stored with illegal drugs, and that was enough to attract his sensitive nose.

Evers praises him and pulls out a toy he can play tug-of-war with, which he does, happily.