If you’re willing to accept this challenge, then the first thing you need is the support of your department. You’re going to need some hard evidence of the benefits of dog cops to persuade your command officers to make a commitment to a K-9 unit. Who Needs Dogs, Anyway? Some might not think a canine unit is necessary in small departments or that calling in other K-9 officers from other departments is easier and more cost effective. But there are many reasons why having a K-9 unit within your own department can make sense, no matter the size of your agency or jurisdiction. Most dog handlers have examples of how their unit has saved them and their department time and money—mostly in decreasing the number of man hours needed to solve crimes and catch criminals. Gary Duncan, K-9 training supervisor at the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, says knowing that canines will save time and money is just common sense.

“A dog could search a building in 10 minutes while it might take two or three officers an hour to do that same search. There’s a time-saving issue right there, as well as the cost.” “A dog’s sense of smell is about 700 times greater than a human’s,” Duncan explains.

“That shows you how much faster he can achieve the same goal that you’re trying to achieve.” Your chief might say, “We use other departments’ dogs to save time on building searches, so we don’t need our own unit.” But one of the biggest problems in not having your own K-9 unit is depending on another department to have theirs available when you need it. You might not have the time to wait. Although this might not be the top reason a department needs a K-9 unit, you shouldn’t count out the public relations benefits of having one. Is There A Better Defrag Program Than Windows. Mark Ficcadenti, a dog trainer in St. Paul, Minn., feels K-9 units can help revitalize communities just with their presence.

Feb 14, 2007 These questions were not thought of and some residents and cops from the department were against starting a K-9. Torrent Hidden Expedition Smithsonian Castle Collector's Edition there. Written guidelines for starting a k-9 program.

“Everybody loves a police dog,” he says. “Other police officers call you to catch the baddest of the bad, but at the same time you get to take your dog to the nursing homes, and the Boy Scout troops. You get to march your dog in the community parade on the Fourth of July.

That’s great stuff.” Coughing up the Cash Using a concealed bite sleeve to simulate the way a real bad guy would look on the job helps to train dogs to react effectively in the field, not just in training situations. Once you’ve convinced your chief and the mayor or the city council that a K-9 unit would be beneficial to your department, you need to find a way to pay for it. Kevin Rofidal with the Edina (Minn.) Police Department was lucky. “A resident in town came in and wanted to donate something to the community for 9/11 and funded the program. For us, we took an existing car and this person is paying for the upkeep and the gas and all of the equipment for the car and everything else. “So we figured it out to be, I think, $29,000 for the first year and then about $7,000 for each year after that.