AQtraining perspectives
You can receive expert advice for all
your training challenges by sending your
questions to Publisher Jeff Meyer at
jeff@PoliceK-9Magazine.com.
I train with a group of
officers from about eight
different departments. We
are all small agencies that have one or
two dogs each. We have been training
together for several years. I would like
to put together a mutual-aid policy so
that we can all help each other with
searches. That way, we would basically
give the officers in our department a
14-dog unit as opposed to their one-
dog unit. Have any of your experts
been involved in something like that
and did it work out?
PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF ACEK9.COM
■ Above: K-9s from various agencies train together. An important aspect of agency mutual-aid
agreements is to create K- 9–specific policies.
Mike Colton replies: First
of all, I applaud you and
your training group for
working so well together for the past
few years. The concept you describe is
one that I see gaining steam, and one
that I wish more agencies would
embrace. In terms of
an actual mutual-aid
policy, I haven’t seen
anything specific to
K- 9, just the use of
generic mutual-aid
policies during
certain events.
In Florida, we
have many training
groups that work
together to provide
each other with K- 9
services. One such group is in the City
of Sunrise and surrounding areas in
Broward County, Florida, headed up by
K- 9 Officer and Trainer Marc Plunske.
I have attended those training sessions
and found them to function like mini-
A
workshops. When any of the local
agencies represented have a need for a
K- 9, several respond, I assume working
under general mutual-aid agreements.
If there are K-9-specific policies, I am
not aware of them.
I would ensure your K- 9 Unit
policies are similar to those of the
agencies you plan to work with, and
that each agency
represented is aware
of and on board with
them. Plan for
mutual-aid events
during training so
that when a need
arises, you are clearly
prepared. We should
not wait for exigent
circumstances to plan
for multiple-agency
K- 9 responses. During
a critical incident isn’t the time to
decide who’s doing what and why.
Again, kudos to your group for putting
egos aside and working together to
provide K- 9 services to all citizens in
your communities.
I applaud you
and your training
group for working
so well together
for the past
few years.
Wendell Nope replies: For some years
the K- 9 handlers in the Salt Lake
Valley have been part of a formal
Multi-Agency K- 9 Unit that has been
very successful in assisting each of the
several agencies in this expansive
valley. Any of the K- 9 personnel in
these agencies would be possible resources for information of this nature.
The current contact person for this
group is Officer Erika Smith, Sandy
(UT) Police Department, email
esmith@sandy.utah.gov, and she
advised me that she would welcome
any inquiries on the issue.
Ron Gunton replies: If there is a
leading buzzword in law enforcement
in this time of slashed budgets and low
manpower, it’s regionalization. That is,
in essence, what you are doing by
training with other K- 9 units. Our area
is no different in that we have K- 9
teams from as many as 12 agencies
who train together at various times,
creating a core group of five to seven
teams. Agencies that have smaller K- 9
units benefit when their own K- 9 team
