Thread: Article from Front Page: Use of K9's in the State of Georgia Crime Suppression Unit

Question Asked of Scott Zimmerman Law enforcement K9 handler from the State of Georgia, US.

Can you describe the use of K9’s in your current working unit and in your experience how do the k9’s fit in as a part of a broader team?

Our agency is the chief law enforcement agency of our county in the State of Georgia, US, and is run by the Sheriff, who must run for the office every four years. We are responsible for providing service to about 308 square miles (496 kilometers) and a population of around 116,000 citizens. Not including civilian employees, we have about 290 sworn officers to achieve this mission. We have urban, suburban and rural areas within those 308 square miles. Within our ranks, we have several specialized divisions and units to include Investigations, Vice and Narcotics, Bicycle Patrol, Traffic, and the units I work- Crime Suppression and K9.
Within our K9 Unit, we have four dual-purpose dog teams and two single purpose dog teams. Our dual purpose teams consist of one GSD, two Malinois, and one Dutch Shepherd. Each of these dogs are trained for narcotics detection, patrol work, and tracking. Within the patrol discipline, all four dogs are trained for handler protection, controlled apprehension, building clearing, article searches/evidence recovery, area search (for suspects), and vehicle extractions (pulling suspects out of vehicles). These dogs are imported from Europe by our vendor at around the age of 12 months to 24 months of age and are imprinted on the odors they are required to detect. Then, the handler will go through a lengthy and intensive school where the dog (and the handler if he/she is new) learns to do all the other patrol work and tracking work before they will certify to be deployed on the streets.
Our two single purpose teams use hounds and their main purpose is tracking and article searches/evidence recovery. With these dogs, they were bred by a fellow local agency from a proven bloodline and we get them when they are puppies and train them to track from there.
The average day of a handler consists of training most of the day in addition to assisting other divisions within the agency such as Investigations and Narcotics, as well as other local, state, and federal agencies. We train daily on the days we work, as well as supplement that training with a full day of training with the full unit and other units from other agencies at least once a month.
Over the past few years, we began to focus heavily on what we feel is the most important function that our unit performs- locating fleeing suspects and missing/lost children or persons with mental handicaps. We analyzed everything from the way we deployed, our coverage of tracking dogs and response times, the way patrol units set up perimeters, the way we train, and the way our incident command functioned. This is what brought on the addition of the two single purpose hounds. Due to budget constraints, we could not afford two additional dual purpose dogs. Therefore, with our focus on tracking and the access to free hound pups from a neighboring agency’s breeding program, we decided to go with the hounds. Although, we do not feel that hounds are necessarily better tracking dogs than other breeds, we do feel they are easier to train do to their natural affinity to keep their nose down and desire to track. Ultimately, we do feel that they will make better trackers within our agency, purely due to the fact that they only perform one function and are able to specialize in that role as opposed tohaving to remain proficient in all the tasks that our dual purpose dogs must achieve. As the saying goes, “Jack of all trades, master of none.”
We also changed the way we deployed during and tracking calls, despite which dog is used. Under our old procedures, when the dog team would show up on scene, he would select any two deputies available to act as his cover team. This created safety problems due to the fact that often these deputies had little to no dog knowledge and often found themselves watching the dog instead of covering the team from any threat. We were able to correct this problem when additional positions are added to our Crime Suppression Unit. Everyone in Crime Suppression is trained in cover officer techniques, as well as sign-cutting skills (ie. visual tracking, often called Indian tracking). With this concept, when a K9 is called for a track, members of the Crime Suppression Unit also respond for deployment. This could mean that the handler has anywhere between three and six additional personnel for the deployment that can assist in locating lost tracks, evidence, cover the team, and affect the arrest if needed. We have found that this has been more successful instead of using any two available, yet untrained deputies that we used under the old system. Using GPS tracking collars, the supervisor responsible for moving the perimeter can see real-time where the team is moving as well as have coordinates to give to any helicopter support that might be on the deployment. Evidence found can also be marked on the GPS to be recovered later if necessary by crime scene technicians.
Through the use of our new deployment techniques, we have become more successful with apprehending fleeing suspects. The biggest problem we have found when we were unsuccessful was with the perimeter and containing the suspect. In this digital age, cell phones are the dog handler’s worst enemy. After all, if you cannot contain the suspect, the dog team cannot catch him, and if he can get past the perimeter, he will get a ride every time.
Good Luck, and Stay Safe!