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“Viewpoints” An Informational Resource to Narcotics Detection Training

CORE COMPONENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL DETECTION TEAMS

This article will identify and address a few of the core components, which are essential in producing successful narcotics detection teams. Understanding and applying this information will assist a detection team in achieving and maintaining a high level of working proficiency as a result of the sound basic fundamentals the team has acquired through training.

Successful Teams Start With the Brass

Often not considered but vital to the success or failure of the team is that of administrative support. It is essential that the team receive support from the top echelon of the department to be effective as a unit. This includes educational, motivational, and operating budget support. This support should extend down to the shift supervisor level for which the team may be assigned under. Law enforcement administrations implementing canine programs should understand that canine units cost money and time to achieve the desired results. Teams that are given opportunities to attend training seminars, workshops and specialized schools will gain immense knowledge and education which will assist in their performance and skills both in training and on the street.

The administration should also conduct periodic reviews of the unit in order to assess and evaluate the unit’s performance, identify and take corrective action concerning problems encountered by a specific team. In addition written training records should be reviewed to determine the teams training activities, problems and corrective measures taken. Also important is a review of cases the team has been utilized and their adherence to departmental canine standard operating procedures for any possible court challenges.

Selecting The Team

To set the record straight, great dogs by themselves do not make great teams. Great teams consist of the dog and the handler working together in tandem towards a common objective. Law enforcement has available many resources from which to acquire high caliber canines capable of meeting the requirements and demands for a narcotics detection role. The problem most overlooked is not with canine selection, but lies with handler selection. A poorly selected handler, who does not possess the diverse criteria required of a law enforcement canine officer can and often do destroy the working abilities and potentials of these high caliber police service dogs.

The process of selecting the most qualified officer as a canine handler should be one, which assesses and scrutinizes many criteria in which the candidate should possess. These criteria should include the officer’s experience on the street, considered as a “team player”, and not the “Lone Ranger”, does not possess a consistent history of disciplinary action, report writing skills, a desire and commitment to accept all responsibilities required by the jobs description, openness to constructive criticism and new ideas, and has family support (if married), for the time demands the position requires.

Adherence To Training Schedules

To diminish departmental liability it is essential that departments adhere to ongoing maintenance training by the canine unit. Federal statutes are in effect, which allow civil action to be initiated against those agencies that fail to comply with these acts. “Liability for Failure to Train” falls under the Federal Civil Rights Statute, 42. U.S.C. Section 1983. Departments, which maintain and utilize their departmental canine units, who fail to train, fail to provide and or maintain written documentation of a units training fall subject under this statute. It is imperative that canine units continue to conduct ongoing maintenance training and complete written documentation of all training activities conducted.

Common Handler Mistakes

More often than not, many of the problems arising with detection teams are due to handler mistakes and not of those by the canine. But unfortunately, it is the canine that gets the blame for these frustrating problems the handler begins to experience both on the street and during training. To avoid writing a novel on this specific subject, I will address a few of common mistakes which handlers fall into and have no clue why the problems they are encountering continue.

Training areas for the specific type of training which will be conducted is very important. At times many handlers return to the same location time after time to conduct their training. The downfall of this is that it begins to “Condition” the canine to that specific training location. The canine excels as it begins to recall each area it has searched and looks like a robot. The problem lies in real life situations when a search is conducted in a different structure for example and all it has ever trained for is a mobile home or a hotel room. The canine, new to this environment, is confused and may not display the intensity or drive in its searching. It is important to expose your canine to as many training locations as possible to reduce conditioning.

A second area is the training standards being utilized for training. It is important that outdated material be destroyed periodically. My personal opinion is that pseudo narcotics substances not be used during training as it has been shown by composition to break down over a period of time. I prefer to use DEA issued controlled substances, which are rotated out for destruction on a periodic basis. It is also important that the amounts of which the team trains with during sessions vary and that the same individual is not the person hiding the training concealments, in which case the dog would begin to associate the individuals scent to the alert of a narcotics substance even when the odor of the narcotic was not present. It is also recommended that various types of containers composed of different composites be used for the training ie…PVC, cloth, glass, tin, metal, cardboard, plastic, etc….. Avoid at all costs using duct tape on a consistent basis to conceal hides to fixtures. Over time the canine will begin associating the smell of duct tape to narcotics even when the odor of narcotics is non-present. I have proven this time and time again to my students, who learned the hard lessons with this material. In addition, it is important that each training session have different set times prior to starting the training ie…20 minutes, 30 minutes, 10 minutes etc…. Our goal is to train the canine to indicate on the desired narcotic odor and go to its source location regardless of the time the source of narcotic odor has been in position.

The third handler mistake that I will address in this article pertains to distractions caused by the handler during the search. These distractions can and do effect the canines search. Some of these being handlers leash control, over presenting, blocking or crowding the canines search area, excessive talking to the canine during the search, the handler getting frustrated with the canine, looking at the canine, failure to maintain a good working pattern, failure to maintain a good working speed, poor reward techniques, not praising the dog enough on locating a concealment, placing hands near the reward during the search, not trusting the dogs alert, and inability to read the dogs changes of behavior. The list goes on but will be addressed in future articles. The important point is to avoid getting tunnel vision during the training process and keep a mental note of what are you doing and what is the canine doing or not doing which may be a direct cause and effect of your bad training habits.

The next issue of “Viewpoints” will address basic handler mechanics to which are designed to improve narcotics search performance. If you have any questions or comments concerning this article, please feel free to contact this author, Master Trainer Mike Johnson at “Viewpoints” at johnmill4@aol.com