K-9 dogs act as detectives, friends to officers

The dogs become part of the family for some officers.

By Alicia Stice

Published Sept. 29, 2009

K-9 units can do anything from tracking a suspect down to searching the football stadium before MU home games.

The MU Police Department, Boone County Sheriff's Department and Columbia Police Department employ the skills of at least one K-9 unit. The dogs possess unique capabilities useful for law enforcement agencies, such as apprehending suspects, detecting explosives and narcotics and protecting their handlers.

CPD officer Scott Hedrick said the dogs become best friends and partners. K-9 units accompany their handlers to work and live with them.

Deputy Philip Smith of the Boone County Sheriff's Department said he was surprised by how attached he became to Brix, his K-9 unit. Smith plans to keep Brix when the dog retires, a common practice for K-9 unit handlers.

The majority of a police dog's job is scent work and most of the work he does is narcotics detention, Smith said.

Scent work is also a crucial component for Enzo, the K-9 unit at MU. Enzo is trained to seek out explosives and is mostly employed before large venue events, MUPD Capt. Brian Weimer said. MUPD has Enzo conduct a "pre-sweep" of Faurot Field before home football games.

MUPD has used a K-9 unit for explosives detection since 2002. Enzo has been with the department for about a year and a half and works with MUPD officer Brian Frey.

Enzo, like many K-9 units, undergoes regular training with his handler, Weimer said. Frey and Enzo had weekly training sessions in addition to the initial training completed before Enzo tackled his first assignment as a K-9 unit.

Training is crucial to a successful K-9 unit. It is important not only for honing skills, but for building trust between handler and dog.

"We do everything as a team, a unit," Smith said. "Brix comes home with me at night and comes to work with me."

Many K-9 units in local law enforcement are trained at Riverview Canine Training Academy in Cape Girardeau. Hedrick said his training with K-9 unit Nitro lasted nine weeks.

The learning process is not confined to initial training and quarterly training stints, Hedrick said. Working with a police dog offers a new experience every day. This is partly due to the large gamut of cases K-9 units deal with.

Recently, Hedrick and Nitro have worked on a trespassing case at MU and a home invasion. Since Hedrick takes Nitro with him on patrol, Nitro is always available for use.

"He's like another tool on my belt," Hedrick said.

Hedrick, a 12-year veteran of CPD, recalled one particularly rewarding case in which he and Brix responded to a burglary in progress. Brix followed the suspect's scent half a mile, into the middle of a field where police discovered a stash of guns that the suspect had abandoned. This wouldn't have been possible without Brix's tracking capabilities.

K-9 units have more than their acute sense of smell to offer their handlers. Both Smith and Hedrick said working with K-9 units has a whole set of rewards.

"Working with animals is fantastic," he said. "(Brix) has no motivation to lie. It's refreshing, especially in this line of work."