Sniffing Experts

Local Police Increasing Canine Use

Over the past year, several law enforcement agencies in the Rockbridge area have expanded their ranks with K9 officers to assist with searches for drugs or explosives.

“I think it makes us more effective,” Rockbridge County Sheriff Tony McFaddin told The News-Gazette. “It’s more efficient and it gives us more choices.”

The sheriff’s office has seen the biggest increase in K9 officers, going from just one dog last year to five today. McFaddin said he is looking to add another dog after the start of the year, as Jimmy – the dog that’s been with the department the longest – is approaching retirement. Jimmy, a malinois (Belgian shepherd) is partnered with Sgt. Chris Wade and is certified as a dual purpose dog, meaning he can be used to detect either drugs or explosives. His replacement will also be a dual purpose dog.

In addition to Jimmy, the sheriff’s office has Mako (also a malinois), partnered with Deputy Chris Corneilson, who is also certified as a dual purpose dog. Officers Jake Tomlin and Bryce Patterson are respectively partnered with Max and Moose, the department’s two drug detection dogs. Max is a German shorthaired pointer and Moose is a black lab.

Rounding out the lineup for the department is the department’s explosives dog Dasty, a German shepherd who is partnered with Deputy Oliver Schriver, the resource officer at Fairfield Elementary School.

The increase in the number of dogs patrolling the county has allowed the sheriff’s office to step up its efforts to crack down on drugs coming into the area, which has already showed results. Earlier this year, Mako helped find a quarter- ounce of methamphetamine during a traffic stop on his first day on the job.

In addition to the dogs at the sheriff’s office, the Virginia Military Institute Police has Igor, an explosives dog partnered with Officer Brian Blake, and Buena Vista has a pair of drug dogs, Beau and Hans, who are working on their certifications. Beau is partnered with Officer Chase Camden and Hans is partnered with Officer Cameron Wheeler.

Igor has been working alongside Blake at VMI since last August and helps provide security at athletic events and whenever dignitaries visit the Institute. Sgt. Troy Wimer, first sergeant of the VMI Police, told The News-Gazette that VMI having its own explosives dog for regular security is an advantage because it gives them a dog with familiarity of the Institute and its facilities. Wimer also said that Blake and Igor have really started to “gel” after a year of bonding.

“He’s starting to see how Igor works,” Wimer said. “He’s starting to pick up on the little things. When he’s doing training and he puts an article out that smells like some explosive, he’s starting to pay attention and recognize the little cues that Igor gives off when he gets onto the odor of something. Maybe it’s just a tail wag, or maybe it’s the way he brings his head back. He’s starting to pick up on those things, and those are things that only time and experience will teach.”

Both Wimer and McFaddin noted that there are several advantages to having multiple agencies within close proximity with canines, including more easily being able to support each other and provide assistance if there’s a bomb threat called into one of the local schools or if there are multiple calls that require searches for drugs in a short time frame.

“If I only had one dog and he’s tied up on the south end of the county and a deputy needs them on the north end of the count or the west end of the county, there’s a great distance for him to travel,” McFaddin said. “But if Buena Vista has one, they can send them out and offer assistance. Or if they need help, we go there.”

Regular training is part of working with K9 units, and with the high number of K9 officers in the county, McFaddin is hoping that some of that training can begin to occur locally rather than having the officers travel outside of the county. Having a local training group would allow the local officers and their dogs to get used to working together and ensure that they all have the same training.

To that end, last week Joe Nicholas, who runs the John “Sonny” Burke Police Canine Training Academy in Corbin City, N.J., came to Rockbridge County last week to hold a series of training sessions with the local canines and to give the officers some tools and equipment they can use to help train their dogs.

McFaddin was put in touch with Nicholas while trying to find and purchase the dogs to train for patrolling the county, and the relationship grew from there.

Last month, Tomlin and Patterson, along with Max and Moose, traveled up to New Jersey to train at the academy and received their certifications after an intensive 10-week training course.

“We talked about it with everybody at our office, so it’s nice to have him come down and do the same training methods and show everybody else what we’re doing,” Patterson told The News-Gazette. “It gets us all on the same page as far as how we do things.”

Officer Blake and Igor joined the deputies and canines from the sheriff’s office at VMI’s McKethen Park north of Lexington last Wednesday for some training exercises, and Blake spoke highly of the experience in an email to The News-Gazette on Friday.

“I enjoyed getting to see a different perspective from another trainer from a different area of the country,” he said. “I also enjoyed observing and training alongside the RBSO deputies and their new K9s. It’s exciting to see the expansion of K9s in our area.”

Nicholas, who has been training dogs in some capacity for more than 40 years, spoke very highly of McFaddin and his deputies.

“He talked to me on the phone for an hour, then sent his men to me, so I must have done something right,” Nicholas told The News-Gazette. “I will never, never praise him enough.”

McFaddin was equally complimentary of Nicholas’ abilities with training dogs.

“He knows how to read a dog,” he said. “He knows how to fix problems and he knows how to train them.”

McFaddin said he is hoping to bring Nicholas down for regular training sessions with the county’s canines, which would be open to any law enforcement agencies who would like to attend. As part of the training sessions last week, Buena Vista’s dogs were joined in Glen Maury Park by canines from Augusta County to work with Nicholas.

“We are extremely appreciative of the support and cooperation we receive from neighboring agencies,” Buena Vista Police Chief David Clements said in a statement about the training. “Opportunities to train together strengthen relationships, promote consistency in our practices, and help all of our agencies build the best possible K-9 programs for the communities we serve. The willingness of our regional partners to share their time, knowledge, and experience is invaluable as our teams continue progressing toward certification.”