It’s darkish, and Westmoreland County Park Police Officer Bill Meyers is searching for a suspect.
His police canine, Rico, can sense the best spot to search out the particular person and finish the search.
“The dog knows he’s there, but I don’t,” Meyers stated.
Or if somebody has rigged up a bomb and hidden it, Rico can let him know.
“I can’t smell it,” Meyers stated.
The skills of a police canine — velocity, agility and nostril work, amongst others — can complement a human officer’s capabilities. The advantages and benefits canines deliver to regulation enforcement was evident final week when a U.S Customs and Border Patrol police canine made a high-profile arrest of an armed escaped assassin close to Philadelphia. Police dogs in Westmoreland County routinely help their human counterparts, whether or not by sniffing out a cache of medication or monitoring down a fleeing suspect.
Notably, state troopers have been capable of get a search warrant for an SUV they stopped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Mt. Pleasant Township final 12 months primarily based on the response of a police canine. Troopers seized 26 kilos of cocaine value $1 million in consequence.
State police Lt. Col. George Bivens mentioned throughout a information convention final week how police dogs will be property in conditions like the huge 13-day manhunt for Danelo Cavalcante, who escaped a county jail whereas awaiting switch to a state jail to serve a life sentence. Police dogs had helped all through the search, and one with the state police is recovering from a heat-related sickness.
“Safely capturing someone, far better that we’re able to release a patrol dog like this and have them subdue the individual than have to use lethal force,” Bivens stated. “Our preference is always to use other means. Canines play a very important role.”
PA State Police K9 Loki, who suffered a heat-related sickness throughout the seek for escapee Danelo Cavalcante, was discharged from veterinary care immediately. Thank you to the veterinary employees for his or her care and the general public for the properly needs on his restoration! pic.twitter.com/QlWb10vhPh
— PA State Police (@PAStatePolice) September 7, 2023
More than a dozen police dogs work at municipal departments in Westmoreland County, and there are others domestically which can be concerned with county and state regulation enforcement companies, together with the Attorney General’s Office.
New Kensington police canine Atom, a 3-year-old Belgian
Malinois, is aware of he’s on the job when handler Officer Joseph T. Naviglia III secures a piece collar round his neck. Atom’s imposing presence will cease suspects of their tracks, Naviglia stated.
“People love to fight and run,” he stated. “However, when the K-9 shows up, that stops. Nobody wants to fight the police dog.”
Atom is licensed in patrol and narcotics detection. But he’s a canine, too.
“He’s my partner and then, at home, he’s my best friend,” Naviglia stated.
Many of the police dogs in Westmoreland County have labored with Bill Sombo, grasp coach with the North American Police Work Dog Association, former handler and police chief in Elizabeth Borough. Sombo estimates he’s been concerned with coaching a pair thousand police dogs since 1996. He can certify them in quite a lot of fields, together with patrol, narcotics and electronics detection.
In recent years, he’s been working with kennels in Holland to pick out the perfect breed and canine primarily based on a police division’s wants. Typically, Belgian Malinois or German shepherds, or a mixture of the 2, are enlisted as dual-purpose dogs, however he’s labored with loads of different breeds, together with Dutch shepherds and Rottweilers.
Suitable dogs sometimes can be social with a excessive drive, he stated. It takes a number of weeks of coaching to turn out to be licensed in a given area.
The advantages to having a police canine are quite a few, Sombo stated, although beginning and sustaining a program will be pricey and probably out of attain for some departments. A canine sometimes runs about $7,000 to $8,000, and certification is a number of thousand extra, after which there are the prices for a patrol unit outfitted to maintain the animal secure, common veterinarian visits and meals.
“It’s a very, very good public relations tool. It’s an amazing deterrent,” Sombo stated. “You’ll never know how many times you have deterred or stopped any type of police use of force based on the dog being all four paws on the ground.”
Handlers are required to finish month-to-month coaching and annual certifications. But their work goes past that: There are the common toilet breaks whereas on and off the job and fundraisers to maintain their departments’ packages going as a result of there isn’t often additional money within the police price range.
Jeannette police Sgt. James Phillips has been profitable with fundraising and, in 2021, used donations to purchase a brand new SUV for his police canine. Donations to this system have been put towards a used SUV this 12 months for the division’s second canine.
New Kensington has three police dogs, and the division held a bingo fundraiser Saturday. Westmoreland Park Police have been elevating
money to increase the division’s program, including a second canine, Elliott, and an SUV. The dogs additionally work together with the general public in optimistic methods — Jeannette’s Kilo and Diesel participated in a metropolis competition Saturday with their handlers.
Meyers has been a handler with park police for 12 years, first with Rex, a retired Belgian Malinois, and now Rico, a 2-year-old Malinois-German shepherd combine. Rico is licensed in gun and explosive detection, in addition to monitoring and apprehension. He has helped police in Jeannette and Rostraver discover weapons, and he’s been concerned with quite a few investigations of bomb threats across the area, Meyers stated.
“Their noses are incredible,” he stated.
Meyers, Naviglia and Sombo have been thrilled to study that Yoda, a Belgian Malinois, was concerned within the high-profile arrest final week. Cavalcante crawled via heavy brush in an effort to get away from police when Yoda was launched. Yoda bit him on the pinnacle and the thigh, the Associated Press reported.
“For this dog to engage him while he was in the thick and heavy brush, … everything was textbook,” Sombo stated.
Yoda did his job, Naviglia stated.
“Dogs aren’t fear-based,” he stated. “That dog didn’t know.”
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review employees author. You can contact Renatta by e-mail at [email protected] or through Twitter .
