SVPD
K-9 Demonstration
Simi Settlers Radio Club Meeting
March 14th, 2002
Officer Rick Morton and his partner
Rex of the Simi Valley Police Department demonstrated the abilities of a
Police K-9 team at the Simi Settlers Radio Club meeting.
Officer Rick Morton and Rex are one of four K-9 units in Simi Valley (Cereo, Rex, Bosco and Gerro). Gerro graduates school tomorrow (Friday, March 15th) and will be on the streets Sunday night.
All of the dogs are full breed german shepherd's imported from Germany. All of the commands are given in German because it's easier for an officer to learn twenty German commands than it would be to retrain the dogs.
When Rick goes to work Rex goes with him and when he goes home Rex comes with
him along with the patrol car. Simi Valley K-9 units are on call 24 hours
a day 7 days a week. If a K-9 unit is needed and none are on duty one can
respond from home in a matter of minutes.
Movie
of Officer Morton and Rex demonstrating how Rex walks on the left side of
the officer.
Movie
of Rex getting some attention.
The dogs can also be used to search for suspects in the same way.
Second, the dogs are used in what is called 'Narcotics Assistance' where the dogs are used to find methanphedemine, heroin, cocaine and marijuana.
If someone is stopped that has been arrested on narcotics offences in the past they may be on probation and have search terms they can actually use the dogs nose to search the car or search the house for any type of narcotics that the suspect may be hiding.
Third, the
dogs can be used to find suspects. If you come home at night and find the back door open and you knew that door was locked when you left you can call the police and most likely they will send a dog if one is available. The reason they do that, the dog can find a suspect more quickly then an officer so they can cut down on the number of officers needed to search a building.
The dog will search for a smell of a person that is not with the group of officers he's with. Once he finds a persons smell that he can't associate with someone in the group he will start to bark.
Usually the suspect at that point will not run because they know the dog is there.
The only time a the dog will bite is when the suspect runs or is told to. The dog isn't doing that out of
meanness he's just doing that because that's what he's been told to do. When the dog bites he doesn't
maul or chew he bites and holds on a hard as he can until the handler tells him to let go. The dog isn't trying to hurt the suspect, he's just trying to hold on.
The dog will only bite for three reason, if his life is in danger, the officers life is in danger or the officer tells him to.
Officer Morton demonstrated how the dog is trained to
always walk on his left side because he doesn't want the dog walking on his right side where his gun is
holstered.
The dogs don't wears vests because if the dog wore a vest at all times like the officer does he wouldn't be able to work because he would be over heated.
It would be like trying to work with a blanket on all the time.
The other reason K9's sometimes go without vests is because of money. K9 units
are not funded by the city but through contributions.
Rex, fortunately has a vest he can use. Officer Morton passed around a police officers vest and the dogs vest.
Anytime there is a potential for gun fire they will put the dogs vest on him. His chest and vital organs are protected as well as along the sides and the back.
Simi Valley has fortunately never had a dog that's been killed in the line of duty. In the county of Ventura there has only been one and that was in the City of Ventura.
The officer/handlers in Ventura County have been given k9 paramedic training so they can
stabilize the dog in case of serious injury long enough to get him to a vet for medical attention.
The dogs are trained to search for narcotics by placing some narcotics wrapped in plastic in a rubber tube with holes drilled through it. The trainer will play hide and seek with the dog using the toy and the dog gets conditioned to the smell associated with his toy.
A leather collar is placed on the dog when they play with this toy so that the dogs gets conditioned to associate the
collar with play time. In the field the officer will place the collar on the dog and the dog will know it's time to search for
narcotics (or does he really think it's just play time? Things that make
you go 'hmmm').
The officer demonstrated this by placing the collar on the dog and the dog then knocked a bottle of water off the table and sat next to it. The bottle of water had a secret hiding place in the bottom where Officer Morton had hidden some narcotics.
When searching a building the officer will always give an announcement that they
have a dog and to come out with their hands up or they will release the dog. The officer then has the dog bark several times just in case the suspect had any doubt in their mind. Nine times out of ten they will come out when the dog starts barking. When the dog finds the suspect he will bark and bark until told to stop or given the command to bite or if his
or the officers life is in danger.
The dogs are trained to bite anything but the head. A lot of times you will see the dogs trained to bite the arm because the arm is where the dog can do the least amount of harm to the person.
If an arm is not available then the dog will bite a leg or a ankle or a butt
cheek or anything else that is available.
Normally the k9 officer would have another officer assist him in the demonstration in the role of the suspect but the officer that was going to assist him was out on a call so he had to be both officer and suspect.
The following photos are from the Emergency Services Fair
