| Farmington PD's K-9 unit |
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Although the temperature was in single digits, the man didn't shiver.
Bosco, one of four trained Farmington police dogs, sat near the visibly intoxicated man and waited quietly.
"Had he done anything (erratic), he would have been dog food," Bosco's handler, K9 officer Jeff White, said of the incident.
Although police dogs are thoroughly trained to find drugs and prevent suspects from escaping custody, the dogs most often are used as a deterrent in the field.
"If we send officers in without a dog, are they going to be stabbed? Shot? We don't know," K9 officer Dennis Ronk said. "The main purpose of the dogs is the unknown."
When crime is prevented, there's no statistical way to measure what could have happened, he said.
Friday's street inebriate, who likely was high on meth, chose not to do anything stupid
"It's safer for us, it's safer for (suspects) and it's safer for the general public," White said of the dogs' contribution to the police force.
Searching the area
The four Farmington police dogs, with the help of one dog in Bloomfield and two in Shiprock, go beyond deterring crime. The animals do tangible police work countywide, whether that means locating a missing child, preventing an escape or busting a drug trafficking ring.
"They are a very valuable tool," Police Chief Jim Runnels said. "There are situations that it's better to send in a dog than to put an officer in harm's way."
Dogs in Farmington are used frequently to do area searches in and around buildings for reported crimes such as burglary, where the suspect may be hiding in the area.
In 2007, police dogs ran anywhere between 800 to 1,000 searches. With 54 subjects located, just three "bites" were allowed, said White, who leads the K9 squad.
A trained police dog can sniff out an entire warehouse looking for a hiding suspect in minutes — a similar task could take two officers several hours to complete safely.
With that added efficiency, each police dog has the potential to accomplish with its nose what would require between 800 and 8,000 human officer man-hours, White said, citing a San Diego Police K9 study.
"Often times they can find suspects that a human can't," Runnels said. "Property crimes are a huge part of what we do, so the building searches definitely save us time."
A safer use of force
Because the dogs can be used as a weapon, the decision to have the animal bite a suspect involves the same degree of foresight as the decision to use a Taser, or any other nonlethal weapon. Those decisions can often have legal ramifications questioning whether the use of force was appropriate.
Just 5.5 percent of the 54 suspected criminals located by the dogs in 2007 were actually bitten.
A dog only can be used to bite someone if the suspect is wanted for a serious crime and trying to evade police, or if the suspect presents a serious safety risk to officers or the general public.
"You better have (legal) reason as to why you're deploying your dog in the first place," White said, noting one use-of-force lawsuit filed against a Farmington Police dog last year that later was dismissed.
Dogs are trained to lock onto a suspect and hold on tight. Because of that control, dog bites typically inflict just four puncture holes that rarely require stitches.
In most instances, the dogs serve as a safer weapon, a use of force that can be called off before it inflicts any harm.
"You can't call a Taser back, you can't call a bullet back, but you can call a dog back," White said.
Searching for drugs is playtime
Two of Farmington's four dogs also are specially trained to find narcotics, although New Mexico law closely limits when they can and can't be used to find drugs in someone's possession.
Dogs are trained to associate locating the smell of drugs with the reward of playing with a toy, and often show a more light-spirited demeanor to finding drugs than tracking people.
White estimated the K9 unit made anywhere between 60 to 100 drug finds countywide in 2007.
"A lot of people think the dog is looking for the drug itself," White said, when really the dog is only looking to find the odor, which means if drugs had been in a car recently and the odor lingers, the dog could be mistaken and potentially damage the legal credibility of legitimate drug finds.
For that reason, police dogs in New Mexico cannot be used to find drugs in cars if the only evidence available is the dog responding to the drugs' scent outside a vehicle, White said. In turn, police are careful to find ample probable cause of suspected drug possession before the K9 unit gets involved to prevent drug cases from being dismissed in court.
Training a four-legged officer
Police look for male German Shepherds and Belgian Malinois bred as work dogs in Germany, the Czech Republic and Holland.
While American breeders have focused more on good looks than a fierce work ethic, breeders in Europe aren't "looking for the perfect lines in any way," White said. "They're looking for a dog that can work."
The dogs are given basic obedience training in the countries where they were bred and are brought to America by a California kennel, where Farmington Police go to hire the department's newest recruit.
Holding true to the animal's foreign roots, police handlers give commands in German, Czech or Dutch, depending on what language the dogs were first trained in.
After choosing a new dog, the animals first are trained exclusively for tracking people, but after about a year of experience, Farmington dogs are further trained to locate narcotics.
"To have a good, well-rounded dog takes about two years (of training and experience) to do what we want them to do, and to have confidence as a dog team," Ronk said.
The costs of buying and training one police dog to that level comes to about $16,000, making the dogs a valuable asset expected to serve the department for around 10 years.
Considering that high cost, New Mexico in 1999 made killing or maiming a police dog a fourth-degree felony, punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
Handlers assigned to a dog take the animal on as a pet of sorts, providing all the care the dog requires, although the city foots the dog's bills. After a dog has retired from its 10-year career, the handler typically keeps it, but assumes the costs of the animals care.
K9 officers countywide meet weekly to maintain the dogs' training. There dogs practice area searches, catching evading suspects and narcotics finds.
Handling a dog is a commitment, but it's worth the companionship, White said.
"We spend more time with these dogs than we do with our family," he added.
James Monteleone: jmonteleone@daily-times.com
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