Agenda Packets - 2011/08/01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No: 4 Meeting Date: August 1, 2011 Type of Business: W ork Session Administrator Review: ____ City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Thomas Kinney, Chief of Police Item Title/Subject: Police Canine (K9) Program Introduction: Police Canines (K9) are widely utilized across the United States among all levels of law enforcement agencies. The main uses for a K9 officer include suspect tracking and apprehension, building searches, narcotic detection, increased officer safety and for public relations and community outreach efforts. This report will cover some of the advantages and disadvantages in administering a K9 program, as well as expected costs and administrative issues to consider. Discussion: Advantages One of the more common uses and requests for a canine by an officer relate to a need to track and search for a suspect. This usually involves someone who has recently fled the scene of a crime. However, other non-criminal incidents could involve the need to locate a missing or vulnerable person. The ability of having a K9 officer within the Mounds View Police Department, offers a potentially quicker response from the officer to assist with this request, rather than waiting for a K9 officer from a surrounding agency to respond and proceed to the scene. If the officer were not on duty, a decision would be made on whether the officer was to be called at home or to enlist the services from an outside agency. The task of searching for a suspect who may be hiding can be a dangerous one for all officers and having the services of a trained canine can only increase the safety factors for the other officers by having the dog handle this duty. Narcotic detection is a large area of service a trained canine can offer. Officers can frequently encounter suspected narcotic situations in motor vehicles while on traffic stops. A canine has senses far superior to humans in enabling the detection and location of suspected narcotics. Higher numbers of narcotic arrests can potentially result in an increase in forfeitures of motor vehicles and cash. A canine within the patrol division can enhance officer safety by placing the dog in the potentially higher risk situation. For instance, during a building search, the dog would be the first inside and conducting the majority of the building search with the officers remaining as secondary searchers. The mere presence of a police canine in any situation can certainly be a psychological deterrent to any person considering any violent action. An announcement that a canine is to be released at a scene can have a strong impact on any persons contemplating further evasion or apprehension.