cannabisnews.com: Amid Dangers of Duty, Dog is Officers Friend





Amid Dangers of Duty, Dog is Officers Friend
Posted by FoM on January 03, 2000 at 08:56:39 PT
By Geoff Williams, Scripps Howard News Service
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer
There's no use running. You will be caught. There's no use fighting. In a fist and paw skirmish, there's no question who would win. It's no use trying to debate your way out of it. They can't talk.Thankfully, police dogs are on our side.
Every day, an estimated 8,000 canines across the country put their lives on the line. Since they were first put into action in Belgium in 1899, and later South Orange, N.J., and New York City in 1907, police dogs have sniffed out robbers, murderers, drug dealers and escaped convicts.They track down lost children and Alzheimer's patients who have wandered from homes. And they protect their human police officer partners."It is like having a second guardian angel, one that would put himself in harm's way for only the affection of his master," says Russ Hess, the National Director of the United States Police Canine Association, based in Middletown, Ohio.Hess isn't exaggerating. Officers and their police dogs get the most dangerous assignments, but thanks to these canines, cops often encounter much less trouble than they might on their own.Jim Wimmers, a Cincinnati officer and canine handler, says his dog, Kody, has only had to bite one criminal in six years. That's because many of the thugs he has encountered have surrendered without a fight: "The only reason I gave myself up is because of the dog," is a comment Wimmers often hears.It is nearing midnight when Wimmers, 36, and patrol Officer Dave Julien, 49, take a break at Cincinnati's Blue Ash police station to talk about their furry partners.Like virtually every officer who works with a dog, they work the night shift. That's when the action heats up, when it's "high crime time," says Julien, whose dog, Lexx, has only had to make five bites in four years. All in all, Lexx has assisted in about 50 apprehensions.Most police dogs are German shepherds because of their balanced and controlled temperament.As Florence, Ky., patrol Officer Randy Maines notes, his partner Major can "be a vicious dog one minute, and my 6-year-old daughter can be leading him on a leash the next."Julien concurs. "They know when it's time to to be friendly, and when to be nasty. They're like a light switch."It usually works like this. An officer is offered the opportunity to become a canine handler. If he or she accepts, they team up with an already trained dog, and usually once a week, they spend a day practicing techniques that they might have to use on the job. But while this is a job, the officers are the only ones working."This is fun for the dogs," Wimmers said. "You have to make it fun for them." In fact, before a drug search, Wimmers gets Kody excited by saying, "You want to go play?"Wimmers demonstrates this by placing a tiny amount of marijuana in a beat-up Toyota that was seized a few weeks ago; Kody caught some drug users who had a stash of LSD and hash. Wimmers hides the drug, directs Kody to look for it, and within seconds, the barking dog is pawing at trunk, his tail wagging. Wimmers then heaps praise on Kody, and they play a little with a tennis ball. Police dogs and their officers spend almost every waking moment with each other, from the time they wake up at the foot of the bed to the time that they spend patrolling neighborhoods.Sometimes, just having the dog on hand makes the community safer, Julien said, explaining that nobody knows how many crimes police dogs prevent simply by their presence.Many times, cops and their canines are directly invited to foil crime. Recently, after an officer was outrun by two robbers, Maines was called over to help pursue two thieves who had robbed a jewelry store in Erlanger, Ky. Major had one man's scent within the hour, and soon Maines found his man in some bushes.Major, barking furiously, cornered the crook, until Maines was able to kick the shrubbery aside and find the man face down, trying to hide.The thief revealed the whereabouts of his partner, and an earlier heist that they had pulled was soon solved.Some criminals on the run, Julien added, will shed their clothes in hopes of throwing the dog off the track. But the notion of police officers handing an old shirt to a dog to catch the scent is the stuff of movies.Dogs are tracing the smell of a human being. So if a crook is racing through a shopping mall, a police dog won't be able to sniff him out; there are too many people about. But if a crook is hiding in thick, deserted woods that stretch out for miles and miles, that's another story.And once the dog has found the smell he's after, watch out. "Each scent is different," Julien said. "No two human scents are the same. They're like snowflakes. And there's nothing you can do to get rid of your scent."Once the dog reaches the human, the animal will take cues from the officer. If the patrolman is relieved to find a lost youngster, and obviously not afraid, the dog will know. If the patrolman's adrenaline is up and he is clearly worried about his safety, the dog will pick up on that too.That's when the barking and snarling begin.There's a little James Bond gadgetry associated with these dogs. If either Julien or Wimmers were outside of their squad cars and in trouble, they have a little button in their equipment that they can press. Once that happens, the rear doors open. Out comes Lexx or Kody, and the bad guys would presumably be toast.Rarely are the police dogs ever toast, for a lot of reasons. Criminals often realize that they aren't any match for 95 pounds of energy and teeth, and officers are reluctant to put their animals into dangerous situations.If Julien knows a criminal has a gun, he won't send Lexx after him. Nor will Wimmers.Which makes sense. The dogs aren't armed, and a bullet can conclude the canine's service within a few seconds. And keeping dogs out of the line of fire is more than not wanting to waste a valuable police tool. It can be devastating to an officer to lose a police dog."These guys -- they love them. They do. They take great care of them," says Jeff Grady, a veterinarian at the Grady Veterinary Hospital, who says a police dog's typical injury is cutting a paw on broken glass or spraining a limb. A dog's death in action is fairly rare -- out of 3,000 members of the USPCA, two dogs were killed in 1998 and five the year before -- but it happens.A monument at Cincinnati police headquarters indicates that a police dog is more than Man's Best Friend; they are a City's Best Friend. The monument pays tribute to Bandit, who took a bullet for Officer Gerry Norton several years ago.Published: January 1, 2000© 1999 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.Related Article:Sheriff's Dog Dies in Drug Training - 11/30/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3832.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by observer on February 13, 2001 at 21:50:46 PT
Their Highly Trained Police Dogs
The Gestapo (literally, "Secret State Police") always like their "K-9 units", don't they? The Nazis, also, felt threatened and outnumbered by their enemies. The Gestapo too, favoured dogs as law enforcement tools in the war on Jews, as their modern-day US police counterparts use dogs in the war against drug users. Baking and cooking were prohibited in the Ghetto. Shlomo Sauerbrunn's bakery in Lubowska Street was the only one which baked bread on behalf of the Jewish Council from the coarse flour provided by the Nazis for the Ghetto prisoners. From time to time policemen came to the Ghetto to see whether the chimneys were smoking. A German soldier went patrolling with his dog, which was trained to smell the scent of meat. . . . http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/stryy/chap6.html On the same day, in the evening of May 10, 1942, it happened. As soon as night descended and the homes were locked, the whole ghetto was surrounded with police of the military, with machine guns, reflectors and police dogs and Jews were chased out of their houses into the yards or open spaces. I was living, at that time, with a Jewish family at 2 Targova and Malachovskiyego. Beside me there lived an elderly couple, Nachemyas, with a daughter and son-in-law, Kaplovich, and a grandchild, a three-year old blonde girl. We were all sitting around the table talking, discussing the events of the day. Suddenly, we heard wild knocks and shouts at the door, "Alle Juden Heraus!" "Schnell! Schnell!"Charmatzhttp://www.migs.org/Data/Charmatz/charmatz_part_1.htm Ex Schupo Uitz stated that his police detachment shot over 15000 Jews in Kolomyja. (18) Pernek tried to hang himself in the prison cell, but later he was so overcome with remorse, he requested pen and paper to record what had happened in Kolomyja and confirmed the forest liquidation's and the use of dogs to tear at Jewish throats. . . . Vienna documents - Frost, probably the oldest participant (60 years), patrolled the ghetto actions with his dog which he had trained to tear at `Jewish throats`. Frost would stand by and shout to his colleagues, `do a good job boys. EXTERMINATION OF THE JEWS OF GALICIAhttp://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/galicia/chap6-1.htm When it became evident that large numbers of Danish Jews were escaping to Sweden by boats, the Germans used police dogs to sniff out human cargo aboard the ships. HOLCAUST BYSTANDERS - DENMARKhttp://users.systec.com/kimel/denmark.html Sometimes I would wear the armband and sometimes I would not. Either way, I was constantly terrified and witnessed many horrible scenes. The Gestapo had large, hungry dogs that they were set loose on Jewish children. There was no room for a mistake, for even the tiniest error meant a death sentence. Nina Morecki A Holocaust Survivorhttp://www.history.ucsb.edu/projects/holocaust/letter.htm Yes, Gestapo like dogs for their dirty work.Still, it is possible to render dogs useless, once you know the trick. Allow me to share it with you. When it became evident that large numbers of Danish Jews were escaping to Sweden by boats, the Germans used police dogs to sniff out human cargo aboard the ships. . . . To overcome this Danish scientist in Malmo concocted a powder made up of dried human blood and cocaine, which dusted on the decks of the ships, completely deadened the dogs' sense of smell. In addition, small amounts of the powder were placed in carefully folded handkerchiefs, which were distributed to the key Danish Seamen. When the Germans came aboard the ships with their dogs, the seamen pretending to blow their noses with their handkerchiefs, would let the powder fall to he decks in the vicinity of the dogs. The Germans never found out why their highly trained police dogs were completely ineffective.HOLCAUST BYSTANDERS - DENMARKhttp://users.systec.com/kimel/denmark.html 
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Comment #5 posted by AZLunatic on February 13, 2001 at 21:14:33 PT
Jaws and Paws enforcing the laws!
I think theses officers and their dogs are doing a great service to America. Too bad they are so outnumbered. Keep up the good work guys!!
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on January 03, 2000 at 17:37:14 PT
*Who's* Best Friend?
It is interesting that no mention is made of dog attacks on innocent civillians. In the Washington Post a few months back was a story of how a canine entered a room with an open window and savagely attacked a 70 year old woman, whose only crime apparently was sleeping with a window open.Or the failure to mention the practice of 'dog jumping'. This is done by forcing a dog to jump on a suspects car as if they were scenting drugs when there were none present. This often happens when you refuse to alllow a cursory and unwarranted search of your vehicle; in order to give the impression of probable cause and a reason to search.Best friend? Or another twisted instrument in the DrugWarrior armorium?
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Comment #3 posted by observer on January 03, 2000 at 11:39:22 PT
Police dogs: Nazi and American
> There's no use running. You will be caught. There's no use fighting. In a fist and paw skirmish, there's no question who would win. It's no use trying to debate your way out of it. They can't talk. Thankfully, police dogs are on our side.Yes, but whose side are the drug warriors on on this country? Are police really protecting our freedom by turning the dogs on drug user scapegoats? More police-doggie anecdotes:''Everything went so unbelievably fast, with shouts of " Now come on, you miserable Jews!", while the dogs were barking from all directions. . . . Finally the cross bars were taken off the doors outside and the doors opened. Though it was dark, searchlights were focussed on us from all directions and again the barking dogs and the shouts: "Out, out, faster, faster,come on, come on". Nobody knew what was happening. The men and women were kept separated. Everything happened very fast and again we were without Papa. I saw lots of barbed wire and searchlights and felt a strong smell of smoke. ''http://remember.org/witness/jagermann.html(For an extensive comparison of the Nazi Police in Hitler Germany and the present police in the United States, read:Drug Warriors and their Prey by Richard L Miller (1996)http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0275950425/ )
get involved: DrugSense Activism
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Comment #2 posted by K.TRAM on January 03, 2000 at 09:35:12 PT
GOOFY
Those doggies are an officers best friend they are the only reliable witnesses to any crime...They cant be cross examined on a witness stand...the dog smelled a controled substance...the dog followed and apprehended soandso he must have done it...give the dogs the guns in colorado and take away the badges from the narcotics squad..
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Comment #1 posted by K.TRAM on January 03, 2000 at 09:35:09 PT
GOOFY
Those doggies are an officers best friend they are the only reliable witnesses to any crime...They cant be cross examined on a witness stand...the dog smelled a controled substance...the dog followed and apprehended soandso he must have done it...give the dogs the guns in colorado and take away the badges from the narcotics squad..
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