Published: May 20, 2008 04:14 pm            

Drug dogs help STOP crime

Canines join narcotics officers to catch offenders

By Leia Jobe

reporter2@trcle.com



Harley and Bor are the teeth behind a local drug task force’s team.

These highly trained dogs are the newest in a long line of task force canine teams.

Drug dogs have been helping the Johnson County Stop the Offender Program Special Crimes Unit catch criminals since 1989, said STOP Cmdr. Adam King.

“We’ve probably had 14 total over the history of the program since it was formed in 1989,” King said.

Though a certified narcotics dog like Bor can cost more than $1,500, King said it’s well worth the cost.

“These dogs are out helping us get drugs off the street in a cost-effective way,” King said. “They’ve really saved the taxpayers a lot of money.”

Once a dog is certified, it can work every day. Service spans eight to nine years for most breeds.

Dogs use their powerful sense of smell to search attics, houses and individuals for narcotics.

To alert the handlers, the dogs will either sit down or scratch at the location of the drugs.

“They can do in five minutes what would take us hours to do,” King said. “And every minute we save gives us time to catch other drug dealers.”

Having a canine team is an advantage for time and safety reasons, King said.

“Upwards of 50 percent of the people we deal with have a contagious disease,” King said. “Most of them have AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, meningitis.”

The drug houses King’s team searches are filthy, he said. Without dogs to help them find drugs, deputies would have to dig through piles of dirty laundry, trash and needles.

Harley and Bor also catch criminals. When criminals run, the dogs catch them.

“When they run the bad guys down, it’s play,” King said. “They’re not being vicious. They’re not doing it out of aggression. They don’t take it personally.”

The dogs usually wag their tails through the whole pursuit, King said. Most criminals don’t wait to find out if the dog is friendly.

“It’s usually just the toenails clicking on the pavement,” he said. “They hear that, and they stop running.”

Today, Harley and Bor are the only two drug dogs at the Johnson County STOP task force team. Bor is a male Belgian Malinois trained for narcotics and patrol work and handled by Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Jay Stubbs.

Harley is a black Labrador retriever trained exclusively for narcotics. Her owner works as an undercover STOP agent.

“Harley is really unique in the sense that she was owned by the undercover agent before training as a narcotics dog,” King said. “She just happened to be really good at narcotics work and really took to it.

“But they’re both exceptional. Bor was bought fully trained. He was born, bred and trained to do police work in narcotics.”

Dogs are purchased, trained and certified through the Nolan River Kennel Club and Global Kennels in San Antonio.

The certification process is important, King said, because the dogs must be trusted.

“We actually write search warrants based on their alerts,” King said. “We cannot take less than top of the line. We place a lot of emphasis on certification because that’s how we rate the dog’s reliability.”

Dogs must pass a certification test each year to continue working.

But for Harley and Bor, work is fun.

“They love it,” King said. “We make a game out of it. Their two motivations are fun and praise. One, it’s fun. When they find drugs, they get to play. We give them a ball to play with as a reward. And two, we praise them. Handlers have such a bond with their dogs that just the praise alone will be enough of a reward.”

Harley’s undercover handler said Harley has worked about 10 cases and is more excited about being with him than about the ball she would see as a reward.

“She generally just does it to please me,” he said. “The best part about it is her personality. I get to have my best friend with me.”

Stubbs has worked with two police dogs. Bor is his second.

“The best part is just the bond between us,” Stubbs said.

        

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