| APD K-9 Patrol Volunteer Newsletter |
| February 2005 |
| Volume 2, Number 2 |
| Volunteer Update |
| Thank you to Doug Sibert, Jeanine Pollard, Beth Pickett, and William Dye for their late-night assistance during some cold nights in January. They did hide work to help the officers and the dogs prepare for their Annual K-9 Patrol Certifications this month and gave the police dogs some exciting new smells to experience. You can see what some of them were up to at www.k9crimefighters.com and click on Volunteers. We will try to keep that Web site updated with the activities of the volunteers whenever we can get the pictures. Once again, we can use one to two volunteers to do hide work on Monday, February 7th from 11 P.M. to 2 A.M. If you are interested, please contact Officer Lahr by E-mail or pager (after 2 P.M.). |
| Arrest Highlights |
| Arrests made in the month of January include: |
| Officer Mierl & Chase assisted a search and rescue operation in Adam sector. A female had severe epileptic seizures and had walked off and become lost. Officer Mierl and Chase began a search, and the female came out from hiding when she heard the dog team approach. Officer Davenport & Ammo were called out for a family violence incident that involved serious injury in Adam sector. The male suspect fled across the street to another house. Officer Davenport placed himself and Ammo in the backyard to prevent the suspect from escaping. When officers knocked on the front door, the suspect tried to escape out the rear door. However, the suspect’s escape was foiled when he saw Ammo, and when he ran back inside the home, police officers arrested him. Officer Mierl & Chase located a suspect who tried to evade police during a traffic stop in Ida sector. Air One saw the suspect run from his vehicle into a trailer home park. Initially, Mierl and Chase searched the area, but could not find the suspect. All officers eventually left the area, but Officer Mierl refused to give up. He believed the suspect had hidden in a drainage pipe, but when Chase checked it earlier, the dog gave no indication there was anyone there. Mierl went back to the drainage pipe after some time had passed. By this time, the wind had shifted, and Chase caught the scent of the suspect hiding inside. The suspect was found deep within the pipe and well out of view. He surrendered when he realized that Chase had located him. Before he came out, the suspect tried to hide a set of illegal brass knuckles inside the pipe. Hearing a suspicious clank, Officer Mierl recovered them after sending our new handler, Officer Eveleth, inside the long, cramped pipe to fetch them. It is tough being the new guy! K-9 Assists Homicide Detectives Officers Davenport, Mierl, and Eveleth & Ammo and Chase located a hidden suspect involved in a homicide on Harmon Avenue. The suspect was hiding in a woody area near the Montopolis Bridge and was found as a result of the great teamwork of all the K-9 officers and their dogs. The suspect is facing aggravated assault charges in connection with the homicide. |
| Community |
| Good news! Officer Eveleth started training as a K-9 handler sooner than expected on January 10th. He will go back to Mounted Patrol to work Mardi Gras downtown for that night only. Thirty years ago, Daniel was born in Turkey. Being an “Army Brat,” he has lived just about everywhere. He has been in the APD for over seven years and transferred to K-9 from Mounted Patrol. He has quite a bit of experience working with animals, and he says he left Mounted because he has always loved dogs and wanted to work with them every day. In fact, he received some good ribbing from other police officers’ downtown, because he saw two lost dogs while working one night. He felt he needed to do something, so he took the dogs home with him to foster. After some hard work, he was successful in finding loving homes for both of them. Daniel also has two dogs of his own: Cyrus the Mastiff and Max the German Shepherd. We will be following Daniel’s training in the coming months and finding out who will be his new K-9 partner. Welcome to K-9 Daniel! |
| Certifications |
| Annual Patrol K-9 Certifications will take place on February 28th and the entire process should last about six to eight hours. Each handler and dog will test individually in front of the judge, who this year is Detective Terry Meadows. He has worked and trained dogs for many years and is very qualified. Because of the stressful nature of the testing, it will be closed to civilian observation. We will update you next month with all the results. |
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| APD K-9 PATROL INFORMATION CONTACT: Officer DJ Lahr darrin.lahr@ci.austin.tx.us EDITOR: Rose Kaminski rose@k9crimefighters.com WE’RE ON THE WEB! For more information: www.k9crimefighters.com |
| Last updated January 4, 2006 |
| Barking: Dogs bark to say that there is something strange happening and to be alert. In the wild, the barking tells puppies to hide and calls the adults over for action. A fearless dog that is intent on attacking is silent. He doesn't waste time sounding the alarm and instead rushes over and bites. On the other hand, a dog that wants to flee will also be silent as it runs away. A more common occurrence is when a dog is not quite sure -- he is feeling a little fear while he thinks about attacking. This dog will snarl and retract his lips to reveal his teeth. The tinge of fear converts the silent attack into a snarling one. The urge to attack is still strong, however, so this is not a dog to be trifled with! |
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| Training |
| Drug dog classes have been held in the following areas: drug dog health care, record keeping, certification, legal issues, standard operating procedures, principles of conditioning, and obedience. As you can see, there has been a lot of classroom time. In the next few weeks, we will be introducing drug odors to the dogs. We will be using the box method of training, which is a “shell” game for the dog. The drug is hidden in one box and all of the boxes are mixed around. The dog is rewarded for sitting at the right box. More training details will follow in the coming months. |
| Upcoming |
| “Name That Dog” Contest in February/March 2005. Officer Eveleth’s Police K-9 Selection in March/April 2005. |