The Corvallis Police K-9 Unit: Part I

Note: This is the first of several articles in a series that explores the value of police dogs to a community.

Why do communities have police dogs?

As communities come to understand the value of police dogs more and more cities are investing in, or expanding, canine units for their police departments. By their mere presence at a scene, it is very common for police dogs and their handlers to resolve peacefully incidents that have potential for violence and injury. More often than not, criminals surrender without any resistance in the presence of a police canine. And drug dogs find contraband so quickly and reliably that it makes them many times more effective than officers.

These obviously are preferred outcomes that have positive impacts on community livability. In addition, such outcomes reduce a community's exposure to liability and make for a more efficient and safe police department. Actually, police dogs improve efficiency and safety in a number of aspects of police work. And we will take a look at just how they do this throughout articles in this series.

During the eleven years that Corvallis has had a police canine unit, three dog/handler teams have served our community in this capacity. Ike and Officer Phil Howery were the first, serving from 1996 to 1999. Next came Dag and Officer Mike Wells (now Detective Wells) who served from 1999 to 2005. The current team is made up of Xar and his handler, Officer Jason Harvey. Xar and Jason have patrolled together since June of 2005. We will get to know all of them in future articles.

In talking about police dogs in general, Corvallis Police Lieutenant Jon Martyr, a former drug dog handler, described a police dog as a "force multiplier" that can do the jobs of several officers at once, especially in the case of building searches. "(Corvallis police) dogs found several people we may not have found otherwise," he said.

What is a Police Dog?

When we hear someone say "police dog" most of us probably first visualize a German Shepherd on patrol with an officer. And indeed, patrol dogs are the oldest and by far the most numerous of the many kinds of police dogs. And although Rottweilers are used as patrol dogs in some communities, the majority of patrol dogs worldwide are German Shepherds, including Xar here in Corvallis.

After patrol dogs, we probably most often think of bloodhounds tracking escapees and lost people. But bloodhounds are popularized by movies and myth and actually are used less frequently in police work than many other kinds of dogs. So next to patrol dogs, the real workers for police are drug dogs, bomb dogs, arson dogs, cadaver dogs, agricultural product dogs (viz., the USDA's Beagle Brigade searching at airports and border crossings for illegal agricultural products), and search and rescue dogs. Labs, springers, beagles, and Belgian Malinois are among the popular breeds used in these applications.

Domesticated some 20,000 years ago, dogs were used initially for hunting and guarding camps. They have an extensive history of use with military forces but a notably shorter history with police. Formal police canine programs probably started in Europe around the turn of the 1900's and began to appear in the US circa 1910. The first ones were in the New York City area. Canine programs were slow to be adopted by other US police departments even though they were gaining popularity in Europe, notably Belgium and Germany. Post WWII saw a spate of growth in European K-9 programs, but they didn't really catch on in the US until the 1970's. Today, many communities all across the US are starting or growing their canine programs.

Oregon communities provide a good example. The first police canine program in Oregon was started in Portland in1956 but it only lasted about one year. However, in 1975 Coos Bay started a program that became exemplary for the state. And when the Oregon Police Canine Association met for the first time in Mt. Angel in 1982, it had 32 members from 23 departments. Still growing, the Association's current membership stands at 123 members representing 49 departments.

In thinking about police work, it is important to keep in mind that finding people (criminals and lost children) and finding objects (evidence and illegal substances) is a major part of the task. So regardless of other traits that distinguish different breeds and regardless of specialized job applications that different breeds excel at, what ultimately makes all police dogs so useful is that they are highly adept at finding people and objects by their keen sense of smell.

Depending on what source you read, dogs are said to have noses anywhere from 100 to 1,000,000 times more sensitive than humans. Dogs also hear better than humans by about a factor of eight. In the next article in this series we will take a close look at both of these senses and how they benefit police work. We will also look at other traits that make different kinds of dogs particularly well suited for their job specialties with different types of police agencies.

References

Auburn University Veterinary Medicine Canine Detection Research Institute:
www.vetmed.auburn.edu/index.pl/cdri_publications

Corvallis Police: Lt. Jon Martyr, Officer Jason Harvey

History of Police Dogs and Military Dogs:
www.geocities.com/ericsquire/articles/dogshist.htm

How Stuff Works:
people.howstuffworks.com/police-dog1.htm

Oregon Police Canine Association:
www.opca.com/