Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2012
Source: Standard, The (St. Catharines, CN ON)
Copyright: 2012 Sun Media
Website: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/676
Author: Jeff Bolichowski

CANINE COP SNIFFS FOR DRUGS

Vader wants his toy, and that means sniffing out kids' secret stashes
of drugs.

The Niagara Regional Police dog had a few leads Tuesday - enough for
handler Const. Ryan Dool to toss him the toy. But the sweep of
classrooms and lockers at Governor Simcoe secondary school, led by
principal Rick Karr with help from the pooch, turned up no drugs in
the end.

That's the kind of result Karr was happy to see.

"Since we started working with the regional police, it's just been
almost next to nothing," he said.

He said students have been caught before when the school asks the NRP
to bring in the K-9 unit for a drug search. But the dog, he said, has
made a difference.

Police call the school a model. They had dogs in six times last
year.

"(Students) think it's going to come by more often than it does," Karr
said.

"We see this as preventative. We want the message to be, 'This is a
good school where drugs are targeted.'"

Dool said how often officers go in to help with searches depends on
the school administration. He said it's school administrators who do
the actual searching because they're the ones with legal authority,
but Vader helps sniff out evidence and pick out where to search.

Tuesday, the school was put on lockdown. School staff filed kids out
of classrooms one at a time, leaving their backpacks behind.

That gave Vader leave to go to town. The dog, at 8 years old the
force's most experienced drug-sniffer, roamed the lines of backpacks.

The drug dogs are trained to glom in on the scent of narcotics. If
they find it, they get a toy. They look for drug smells alone, so
lunches don't throw them off.

At one point Vader pawed urgently at a student's coat. School staff
promptly took it out of the classroom and searched it.

All told, staff dug through four or five bags and coats and a locker,
but no drugs were found.

And despite a few sullen faces from students, many could be heard
commenting on the "cute dog." One even asked to pet him.

"Kids love the dog," Dool said.

"All schools have drug problems. It's just the nature of the culture
now," he said. "It's either we're going against it, or we're doing
something to keep it out of the schools."

Karr said "99.9%" of students are good and wants to do the right
thing.

He said the classrooms and lockers searched aren't chosen at
random.

"You have to be proactive," he said. "We want to be as good a school
as we can be."

Const. Brian Knight, the NRP's school resource officer, said the
searches aren't about imposing on kids. He said officers try to reach
out, too.

"We're not just here to arrest bad guys," he said. "We're here as a
presence, as a resource."
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