Critters
by Debra Bell
Special to The Weekly
March 13 marked National K9 Veterans Appreciation Day. While most will think immediately of German shepherds and Belgian Malinois breeds, the most common police dogs out there, other breeds have special talents for sniffing out explosives or drugs.
Dogs, most notably bloodhounds, have been used by law enforcement since the middle ages to hunt down outlaws. Now police use specially trained dogs each with a unique skill set — search and rescue dogs, detection or explosive-sniffing dogs, arson dogs and cadaver dogs. Dogs used by police are not only specially trained, but their handlers are highly trained as well, usually undergoing extensive training with the dog they have been paired with.
Bangor police have been using dogs since 1974.
In November 2013, the Bangor Police Department retired one of its brave canines. Endumin, a Belgian Malinois. was 10 years old when he retired from patrolling the airport terminal alongside Officer Dan Scripture.
Endumin’s replacement, a now 5 year old yellow Labrador retriever named Sony, joined the Bangor Police K-9 force in the Bangor Police Department in November 2013 at the age of 2. Sony is one of three dogs that regularly patrol Bangor International Airport. The others are Jovic, a Labrador retriever and Pele, a German Shepherd. All three dogs have special jobs.
As the newcomer, Sony’s important job is to inspect luggage and bags, patrol the terminal and use his nose to detect drugs and bomb material.
“He’s looking for explosives,” Scripture said in a 2013 interview. “He will let us know when he finds it by staring at it. He sits and he stares.”
And while the shift of a police officer working at the airport can last 12 to 14 hours, the shift of a police dog at the airport is as long — except that the dog gets to have lots of siestas.
But when he’s patrolling the airport terminal, investigating bags and luggage, or inspecting planes for explosives, he’s en pointe.
“They think we’re playing,” Scripture explained. “We harness their ability to want to play with our work [detecting explosives]. That’s how we get them to sniff for explosives, aircraft, cargo hold and terminal.”
And the dogs get a lot of attention from staff and airport visitors. But when the dogs are on the job, they’re off limits.
“Unless it becomes part of the actual search, we don’t allow people to touch them,” Scripture noted. “[People] can certainly come and talk to us about [our dogs] or about their own dogs. I love hearing their stories.”
Sony’s skills in explosive detection aren’t just used in the airport. They’re also used when a business, organization or school has a bomb threat called in. In fact, the dogs help to reduce the amount of time a police team would spend on clearing the building. That means less disruption and an enhanced bottom line.
“People report things a lot quicker if they don’t think they’re going to get shut down [for long periods of time],” Scripture said. “The availability of the dogs to go anywhere there’s a credible disruption helps us serve as a deterrent.”
So the next time you are out and about and see a canine police officer in any form, give them a salute. They’ve earned it.