BIPARTISAN GROUP SEEKS BILL TO POLICE CANINE UNITS

A bipartisan coalition of Missouri legislators, led by Sen. Peter Kinder, R-Cape Girardeau, is supporting a bill aimed at helping police officers who work with canine units to police themselves.

The bill, which was drafted in consultation with the Missouri Police Canine Association, seeks to establish state standards for certification of police dogs and their handlers. Presently, no such statewide standards exist.

Although the bill will not make certification mandatory for cities, it will encourage that police dogs and their handlers are certified together. Certification will be granted through one of four major canine associations.

Kinder intends to introduce the bill to the state Senate later this week. A similar bill will most likely be introduced later in the Missouri House by Rep. Ralph Monaco, D-Raytown, Kinder said.

Vendors from outside the state sometimes sold dogs to police departments even though the dogs were not capable of doing the job required of them, said Gary White, president of the Missouri Police Canine Association and an officer with the Raytown police department.

White visited Cape Girardeau last week to solicit Kinder's sponsorship and support.

"Police departments may spend between $3,000 and $10,000 on a dog, depending on what the dogs are trained for," White said. "But some vendors are selling dogs that wouldn't meet the minimum standards."

Police dogs, which are relatively new to many police departments, are a valuable tool for law enforcement, White said. The legislation would help improve the working ability of dogs in the state.

The dogs are most often used by police departments in detecting narcotics. A narcotics dog must be trained to detect a minimum of four odors -- marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. They also must be able to locate something so small as a single gram, an amount that can be easily overlooked by the police, White said.

"For that reason, dogs are cost-effective. They're faster and more efficient when making a search, allowing the officers to return to the street faster," he said.

Mike Ervin, who works with the canine units in Cape Girardeau and Sikeston, said that area schools sometimes hire him for searches of school premises in order to keep the schools drug free.

Ervin, who also trains dogs for canine units throughout the state, said that the legislation also will help insure that dogs continue to receive proper training.

"A dog has a mind of a three-year-old child," he said. "Dogs learn through association and repetition. If you don't keep your dog trained, he will forget. They must practice what they do."

At least eight hours of training each week is ideal, Ervin said.

The certification will not simply be for the dogs, but for the teams of dogs and their handlers. If the dog is given a new handler, then the team will need to be recertified.

Certification for the team may be obtained through the Missouri Canine Association, the United States Canine Association or the North American Police Work Dog Association. Dogs that work specifically for bomb detection also may receive certification through the Federal Aviation Administration.