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 Patrol Officers and K9 Units as a Team
© by Cpl. Robert Roth Canine Handler
Uintah County Sheriff's Department
Many patrol officers have a limited understanding of a canine team's capabilities. This limited understanding hinders a canine team's success, because canine teams must rely heavily on patrol officers. A canine team is often called as a last resort to find the guy that got away, or the stash of contraband that the narcotics officers can't find. A plan of containment and prompt coordination with the canine team will greatly increase the likelihood of apprehending the suspect.
Cops -- whether patrol officers, detectives or canine handlers -- love to catch bad guys. Ever lose a bad guy? What do you do then? Cops don't like to lose, so we continue to beat the bushes hoping to come up with the bad guy. We'll try anything, and once foot searches fail and we still can't find the guy, what do we do then? We call the dog to save the day! The canine team arrives to deploy, we stand back and expect them to work miracles and find the guy. However because of our initial efforts we have hampered their performance. So when the canine team fails, what is our reaction? "Oh, that dog never works!" A little bit of knowledge about police service dogs can go a long way in acquainting patrol officers with a dog's abilities and creating the best circumstances for apprehending the bandit.
The line officer needs to learn and understand what a canine team is capable of and how patrol can help the canine team's ability and not hinder it. Canine deployment must be a team effort with the patrol officers and the canine team. Canine teams rely on patrol for proper backup, suspect containment and scene preservation. Without this teamwork a the chances of a successful deployment are much less. However, adopting a team approach with patrol officers trained to work with the canine team can increase results as much as 30 to 40 percent.
A canine team is a tool and resource at the patrol officer's disposal. The canine team's strengths include pursuing fleeing suspects, searching for stolen property, locating and recovering evidence at crime scenes, apprehending armed and dangerous persons, and searching for contraband in areas with limited or difficult access.
The Nose Knows
Far and above any human capability a dog has the awesome ability to detect and analyze odors. They have the ability to store and recall specific odors which he has imprinted on his memory. The police service dog is conditioned to use those abilities to detect specific odors. We simply harness their natural ability to assist us in our duties.
Inside of a dog's nose, there is a maze of tiny structures. These are called turbinate bones. These scroll-like passages are covered on both sides with membranes that detect odor. This area where odors are first detected is many times more effective than that of a human nose. A recent article by Dr. Marie Russell, a former police officer and presently a professor at UCLA Medical School, states that a patrol dog's sense of smell is six million times more sensitive than a human's.
Secondly a dog has another physical ability that humans lack. On the roof of a dog's mouth they have a gland called the vomeronasal gland. This gland is connected to the olfactory portion of the dog's brain and allows the dog to taste scent. The dog has the ability to detect odor which it tastes. A police service dog is able to track a fresh scent very rapidly by taking odor in through his mouth.
When the dog gets close to a suspect, the dog lifts his head and begins to work the odor through his mouth. This is a strong indicator to the handler that the suspect is nearby and a warning that he should prepare for possible confrontation.
Follow His Nose
There are several different methods a police canine will use to find a suspect when using his olfactory abilities, several of which are very complicated and beyond the scope of this article, however the following is a summary of the various methods.
Every person's scent is as unique and individual as a fingerprint. Ethnic origin, health, the type of foods he eats and the soaps and perfumes he wears all make up the odor which is individual to that person. The type of clothing worn and the articles he carries also make up the scent. His body contact with articles such as stolen property or discarded weapons also affords the dog the ability to recover articles specific to the individual.
Tunnel scent is odor left airborne behind a suspect as he flees. The odor drops off the suspect and leaves a trail for the dog to follow. You will see a dog start to work with it's head up, showing excitement and tracking at an increased speed and intensity. This is typically what you will see when you are getting close to the suspect and should be a warning to the handler and backup team that you should be prepared for a confrontation.
Windborne scent from a discarded object can originate from this previous human contact, or may also be characteristic of the object itself. For example, a dog can easily detect an item discarded if he is worked downwind, as the scent of the item will attract the dog's attention. It is foreign to the surrounding area and as a result the dog will lead its handler to the article. In this way a dog can be used to search and recover articles which are discarded hours and even days before.
Ground scent is another form of trail for the dog to follow. What about situations where the airborne scent has been dispersed by winds or other disturbances? Wherever a person goes, whether he is sitting, standing, walking, running, or even swimming, he sheds thousands of minute particles of skin called rafts. These rafts of skin contain the person's individual genetic scent composition. As these rafts of skin fall off a person, they come into contact with the surrounding area. They may fall onto nearby plants, onto the pavement or sidewalk, or may be rubbed off onto a nearby wall. As the suspect flees, he also runs across various surfaces. When he disturbs these surfaces, new fresh odors are released, making a trail for the dog. A crushed insect or vegetation releases fresh scents for the dog to work with. This is known as ground scent.
Another form of scent, called contact scent, is odor which transfers from one surface to another. As the suspect flees across a grass surface, thousands of microscopic particles are picked up on his shoes. As he proceeds onto a sidewalk, these particles are deposited along his trail, and he now picks up minute particles of lime and other products which make up the sidewalk. As he continues to a paved surface, he continues to leave small particles from the grass surface, as well as particles from the sidewalk. He now comes into contact with a surface which will leave small particles of tar and oil residue on his shoes which will also transfer to the next surface.
This process of transfer, the freshly disturbed ground scent and the odor left behind on rafts of skin from the suspect, all give a detectable and continuous trail to the dog.
A dog has one more very strong sensory asset. The olfactory lobe of the brain enables him to readily discriminate scent. Although the track may become contaminated by other people walking through the area, the dog can sort out scents that are interfering with the original track and work the track to a successful conclusion.
The more contamination that occurs in an area, however, the more difficult it is for the dog to work the available scent. As people walk through the offender's path, the scent which he has left behind him is disturbed. These disturbances can often blow the scent in various directions. This can cause the dog to go the wrong direction and often lose the track. If the dog is working well and the conditions are good, however, the dog still may work the track out.
Even though the dogs have this ability, it makes the chance for a successful track less likely. Thus, it is up to the patrol officer at the scene to contain and preserve the area to the best of his ability. If there are other scents at the crime scene, the dog will not know which scent is the suspect's. You must keep the crime scene clear from other persons' scent until the dog team has arrived and a track has been initiated.
It's a team effort!
Canine handlers must rely on patrol officers to escort or back them up on every deployment. This is crucial to officer safety. When canine handlers are shot and killed or gravely injured it is usually because they were without any officer backup at the time of the confrontation.
As a canine officer's backup you become a part of the canine team. If you cannot meet the physical challenges faced by the canine team, then be certain someone who is capable assists as a backup. When working as a backup to the canine team, you must be prepared to keep up to your handler under any circumstance. Some officers drop out of the chase when they must start jumping fences, or when the area gets muddy and their uniform starts to get soiled. We instinctively slow down and pick our way through muddy areas to stay as clean as possible, as dress and deportment is drilled into us from the first days in the academy. When escorting the dog handler however, you must shed your natural inhibitions and stay with him. You are vital to the team's safety. Get dirty and stay alive!
Summary
A patrol division without canine support to assist them is handicapped, both in dense urban areas, suburbs and rural settings. Similarly, a canine team without patrol support to execute proper containment tactics and backup the canine team is handicapped. In each situation, the likelihood of a successful apprehension shrinks substantially, and officers are unnecessarily placed at risk.
There are many areas that a properly trained canine unit can help patrol including building searches, evidence recovery, tracking, narcotics searches, handler and officer protection, crowd control, bomb searches, cadaver searches, lost person searches, SWAT applications, area searches, and suspect apprehension.
Too many agencies have internal battles going on within the ranks, one division against another, i.e., patrol vs. detectives, swat vs. canine, etc... The fact is that we are all on the same side and the enemy is out there. After we've locked up all of the bad guys, then maybe we should fight amongst ourselves. Until that time comes all divisions and areas of specialty need to train together, utilize each others' advantages and communicate with each other. Above all, we must work together to obtain the optimum results.
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