Featured Department: Kanawha County Sheriff's Department

ISSUE 46 OCT/NOV 2017

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8TH Annual International

2018 2017

K9COP CONFERENCE & VENDOR SHOW

Nashville Sept. 18, 19, 20 - 2018 Tennessee

INSIDE:

Featured Article: The K-9s of Chicago P.D. Television Series Obedience: Clear, Concise Canine Communication

Training: Tactical K-9 Training and Beyond Part 1

Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office K- 9 Unit

By Sgt. Paxton Lively, K-9 Unit Supervisor Photos by: Lisa Jennings Photography

OUR COUNTY

• The county was founded on October 5, 1789 and

named for the Kanawha River, which in turn was named after the Indian tribe that lived in the area.

• Fourth-largest county in West Virginia by area.

6 2 • K- 9 C O P M A G A Z I N E

• Population: 200,000 • Sheriff’s Office keeps right at 100 sworn deputies, along

with Civilian Deputies that perform Home Confinement, Civil Process, Mental Hygiene, Day Report & Bailiff Duties.

K-9 UNIT HISTORY

Com Bryan Robbins & K-9 Bern, 1994

A two-man S.T.O.P. (Sheriff’s Tactical Operations Patrol) Team was formed in 1993, consisting of Deputy Dan Clarkson and Deputy Bryan Robbins in an effort to combat the crack cocaine epidemic that had infiltrated our county. Approximately two months after this unit was formed, then Chief John Rutherford was able to facilitate adding a K-9 unit to the team to further their abilities to locate narcotics.

It was decided that Deputy Robbins would be the K-9’s partner and while attending the handler’s course at Augusta K-9 located in Rocky Gap, Virginia, he was introduced to his new K-9 partner, Bern, a multi-purpose German Shepherd.

Deputy Robbins and K-9 Bern served together from 1993 to 1998, when Bern was moved to a new handler, Deputy Ron Mathis. Mathis and Bern served together until 2002, when Bern had to be retired after receiving an injury during a foot pursuit. Coincidently, it was a foot pursuit that I had initiated and he was assisting with. K-9 Bern jumped a concrete barrier on U.S. Rt. 60 and injured his front leg when he landed awkwardly.

Even after receiving this injury, he was still able to apprehend the suspect about 200 yards beyond the concrete barrier. K-9 Bern lived a good life in retirement with Deputy Mathis and his family before passing away in 2005.

In 1998, Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office formed a Bomb Squad to meet a demand that was lacking in our area.

That same year, Deputy Matt Cummings was selected to attend Augusta K-9 to train with his new partner, K-9 Morgan.

Morgan was a Black Lab, single purpose, explosive detection K-9. They graduated from training in January of 1999 and started work as the only explosive detection unit in our part of the state. Deputy Cummings and K-9 Morgan worked together until 2006 when Morgan was retired. Cummings then received a new partner, K-9 Bosco, and they worked together until 2016, when Bosco was forced into retirement due to medical issues.

From 2003 to 2014, the Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit expanded to as many as ten K-9 teams at one point. The ten teams included two bomb dogs, a single purpose narcotics dog and seven patrol dog teams.

During this time, all of our department’s dogs came from an in-house breeding and training program. In the summer of 2014, the Sheriff’s Office Administration decided to disband the K-9 program and start over with new handlers and K-9s.

STARTING OVER

In July of 2014, I was selected to be the new K-9 Supervisor. It was decided that we would keep the two bomb dog teams from the original K-9 Unit, Lieutenant Cummings partnered with K-9 Bosco and Corporal A.J. Miller partnered with K-9 Bruno. My single purpose narcotics dog, K-9 JOJO, would be retired. (JOJO is now enjoying retirement while lying on the couch and watching TV). The rest of the department’s K-9 unit would be replaced with two new bloodhounds, four new patrol dogs and six new handlers.

I assisted with the selection process for the new handlers. A board interview was done with potential candidates and at the end of the day we picked the handlers for the six K-9 positions: Corporal Christopher Lyons, Corporal John Ratliff, Corporal Carl O’Neal, Deputy Michael Dickerson, Deputy Jeremy Ferrell and Deputy Jamie Miller.

PATROL DOGS

Due to me being newly selected as the K-9 Supervisor, I was also tasked with re-writing our department’s K-9 Policy and with selecting a vendor from which to purchase our new dogs. Along with members of our administration, we visited several vendors in our quest to decide where we would purchase our new K-9s from. We physically visited five different vendors and liked all of them but after an extensive evaluation of the vendors, we decided that K2 Solutions in North Carolina best fit our needs.

I went with the department’s new patrol dog handlers, Corporal Lyons, Deputy Dickerson, Deputy Ferrell and Deputy Miller, to K2 Solutions to select our new partners. In September of 2014, the five of us began our five-week handler course at K2 Solutions. We selected three German Shepherds and two Belgian Malinois. I was partnered with K-9 Arizona; Deputy Dickerson with K-9 Brix; Deputy Miller with K-9 Rocky; Corporal Lyons with K-9 D’Jambo and Deputy Ferrell with K-9 Paco.

Earlier in the year, Deputy Ferrell was injured while on duty, requiring him to be off work while receiving treatment for his injuries. While he was recovering, Corporal Lyons and I worked with K-9 Paco to keep him at the top of his game.

Shortly after Ferrell’s return to full duty, he left for another department and Paco was then partnered with Deputy Bryan Pauley. During the same time, we had issues with Deputy Miller’s dog, Rocky.

After several attempts to correct the problems, we had to replace Rocky with another German Shepherd, K-9 Max. 63

BLOODHOUNDS

With assistance from Officer Don Kelly and Officer John Bird of the West Virginia Division of Forestry’s K-9 Unit, we located a breeder in Northern Ohio where we were able to purchase two 10-week-old Bloodhounds. We selected K-9 Loosiee to be partnered with Corporal Carl O’Neal and K-9 Alibi to be partnered with Corporal John Ratliff. These two dogs are the first Bloodhound units that the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office has had in its ranks.

The West Virginia Division of Forestry allowed Officers Bird and Kelly to assist us in training our new Bloodhounds and handlers for over a year. They not only helped to train the new dogs but also helped to mold Corporals O’Neal and Ratliff into well trained and dedicated handlers. We could never thank the West Virginia Division of Forestry enough for assisting us with this task.

CPL. CARL O’NEAL K-9 LOOSIEE CPL. JOHN RATLIFF K-9 ALIBI

These two dogs are the first Bloodhound units that the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office has had in its ranks.

BOMB DOGS

When the current K-9 Unit was formed in 2014, we kept the bomb dog teams we had at the time: Lieutenant Cummings with K-9 Bosco and Corporal Miller with K-9 Bruno. Both dogs were over nine years old and due to retire, so at the beginning of 2015, two new dogs were selected from K2 Solutions to replace them. Corporal Rich Lane and K-9 Amos, a Yellow Lab, took over for Lieutenant Cummings and Deputy Seth Cowan and K-9 Tripp, a Black Lab, took over for Corporal Miller.

Last year, Deputy Cowan decided to leave law enforcement and move to another state. I housed K-9 Tripp at my residence and certified with him while the department went through the process of selecting a new handler. Corporal Jeremy Yost was eventually selected to be K-9 Tripp’s new handler and works with him today.

CPL. RICH LANE K-9 AMOS CPL. JEREMY YOST K-9 TRIPP

Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office formed their first Bomb Squad in 1998 to meet local demands before the current K-9 Unit was formed in 2014.

6 4 • K- 9 C O P M A G A Z I N E

Left to Right: Deputy Michael Dickerson & K-9 Brix, Deputy Bryan Pauley & K-9 Paco, Corporal Christopher Lyons & K-9 D’Jambo, Sergeant Lively & K-9 Arizona, Deputy Jamie Miller & K-9 Max

TRAINING

As the Supervisor of the K-9 unit, my goal each year is to provide each handler with as much training and education as I can within my budget. To help reach this goal, we created our own K-9 Association, West Virginia Blue Line K-9 Association, for fundraising and to supplement our training budget so that we can get as much training as possible. Another local K-9 Association, St. Albans K-9 Association, has also helped us by providing training on several occasions.

Corporal Lyons and I have both attended the Trainer’s Course at K2 Solutions and are certified trainers. We try to tailor our training toward real life scenarios so that our K-9 teams will be better prepared for what they face on a daily basis. As a Unit, we train twice a month for nine hours each day. The handlers are also expected to train on their own or with other handlers when possible between those training dates. Every team attends the annual West Virginia Police Canine Association Conference for certification. The patrol and bomb dogs also certify through the International Police Working Dog Association (IPWDA) and the bloodhounds certify through the National Police Bloodhound Association (NPBA). Each team receives two weeks of training at the conferences plus over the last three years we have sent handlers to the following: • K-9 Olympics – Vohne Liche Kennels • Advanced Detection Course – K2 Solutions • Trainer’s Course – K2 Solutions • K-9 Cop Conference – Nashville, TN • Police K-9 Conference – Las Vegas, NV • K-9 Deployment Workshop – Greenville, SC • York County Bloodhound Conference, SC • Tactical K-9 Deployment – AMK9

As you can see, we have trained with several other vendors besides K2 Solutions. The opportunity presented itself to attend training in different places and I believe these vendors all presented excellent training that we were lucky to attend.

One important thing I have learned since taking over our K-9 unit is to never stop learning. I recently attended my trainer’s course at K2 Solutions and loved learning from multiple trainers in different areas. I read every article in the K-9 magazines I subscribe to, I keep up with new K-9 case law and I have read more books in the last three years on K-9 training than I care to list and firmly believe that every trainer can teach you something. Just because it isn’t your way, doesn’t make it the wrong way.

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K-9 USAGE

All of our K-9 handlers are assigned a patrol area just as they were before they had K-9 partners. They are still responsible for answering and investigating 911 calls. This does affect our deployment numbers but at this time there isn’t another way to do this due to not having enough manpower to make it feasible for them to be K-9 only.

To help orientate our deputies with our new K-9s, we conducted a demo during department training to introduce the new K-9s to the patrol officers and to show them what the K-9 teams were capable of. We have also conducted training with our SWAT Team and again during department training our K-9 teams were incorporated into the training with the deputies during tracking exercises. I feel that this interaction with the deputies during

Fiscal Year 2015 - 2016

Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office

K- 9

Unit 6 6 • K- 9 C O P M A G A Z I N E

RESPONSIBLE FOR

1,187 DEPLOYMENTS CARRIED OUT

441 VEHICLE SEARCHES

training has helped build the trust and deputies are calling for K-9 assistance more and more. It usually only takes an officer seeing your partner do their job one time to convince them it’s the best way. Why stomp around for an hour looking for a shell casing or a piece of evidence when the K-9 can find it in seconds?

LOOKING FORWARD

As the K-9 Supervisor for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, I only have one goal: to leave it better than it was when I started. I have put in a lot of work to make our K-9 unit one of the best, which can only be done with support from our Administration that I have had from day one. They get tired of me asking for training, equipment and money but in the end, if our unit needs it, they make sure we have it and you can’t get it if you don’t ask for it!

APPREHENDED

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SUSPECTS CONDUCTED

141 SCHOOL SEARCHES

RESPONSIBLE FOR

243 TRACKS WITH

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CONFIRMED SUCCESSFUL