Featured K-9 Unit: Russian Ministry of the Interior

November/December 2020 - ISSUE 82

Featured K-9 Unit Russian Ministry of the Interior

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F E AT U R E D K- 9 U N I T : M I N I S T R Y O F T H E I N T E R I O R O F R U S S I A C A N I N E U N I T S

MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR OF

RUSSIA CANINE UNITS

BY COLONEL OF THE POLICE SERGEY A. KACHKIN, HEAD OF THE FEDERAL CANINE CENTER OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR OF RUSSIA FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Rustam Sigbatulin & K-9 Der Tsvaite Lord, Igor Semenov & K-9 Usta,

Sergei Seredin & K-9 Ars Klimsvevik, Aleksei Baranovsky, Aleksandr Chernishov, Sergei Kachkin, Chief of K-9 Service Division, Aleksei Bezzubov, Irina Zelikhina, Kristina Davidkina & K-9 Hilda Grand Ami, Aleksei Ignatov & K-9 Don, Sergei Gorbachev & K-9 Genrih Pobeditel

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F E AT U R E D K- 9 U N I T : M I N I S T R Y O F T H E I N T E R I O R O F R U S S I A C A N I N E U N I T S

The principal legal act regulating activities of the canine units of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia is the Federal Law on Police which states that the service dogs can be used as special means in the following cases:

LEGAL FRAMEWORK The legal framework of the activities of the canine units of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia is formed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, universally recognized principles and norms of international law, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, regulatory legal acts issued by the President and the Government of the Russian Federation, regulatory legal acts issued by the Ministry of the Interior of Russia and laws of the regions of the Russian Federation.

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• To ward off an assault against a citizen or a Police Officer; • To stop a crime or administrative offense; • To stop resistance against the Police; • To apprehend a person caught as he was committing a crime and who is trying to escape; • To apprehend a person if that person is armed; • To deliver to the Police, escort and guard detainees, persons in custody, persons subjected to an administrative penalty in the form of an administrative arrest and also to stop an attempt of escaping, if the person resists the Police or causes harm to surrounding people or himself; • To release persons detained by force, captured in buildings, premises, structures, vehicles and land plots; • To detect the persons who are committing or have committed crimes or administrative offenses; • To protect guarded installations and block the movement of groups of citizens committing wrongful actions.

A general, legal framework has been developed for all the canine units of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia, which regulates the issues of use, supply, housing and training of service dogs as well as the organization, management and logistic support of the canine units and professional training of the dog handlers.

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F E AT U R E D K- 9 U N I T : M I N I S T R Y O F T H E I N T E R I O R O F R U S S I A C A N I N E U N I T S

STRUCTURE OF THE CANINE UNITS AND ORGANIZATION OF THEIR ACTIVITIES The following are the canine units within the Ministry of the Interior of Russia: • Federal Budgetary Institution «Canine Center of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia» – the leading unit within the Ministry coordinating operational activities of the canine units as well as providing their administrative and methodological support;

• Canine centers within the territorial bodies of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia at the regional and local levels as well as canine services in the transport police units; • Structural units of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia using service dogs in their work (patrol and guard service, security and escort service, etc.); • Structural units of the educational institutions of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia training dog handlers for work in the police field.

Depending on the scope of their tasks, the canine services can be of regional or local competence. The service dogs are used for the following purposes: • Search of individuals by their scent traces; • Search, detection and indication of the target substances by their scent; • Search of dead bodies, human remains and blood traces; • Guard service; • Escort service; • Examination of scent traces with detection dogs.

In addition to routine activities of prevention and clearing of crimes and administrative offenses, canine teams are successfully used for protection of public order during large-scale political and social events and international sport competitions. The canine teams also participate in special activities including counterterrorist operations. For the time being, there are more than 13,000 service dogs of about 40 breeds in the canine units of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia. Some of them are used in all the ranges of operative and search activities; others are more specialized. The most widespread breeds are German Shepherds (74% of all the service dogs), Belgian Shepherds (8%), East European Shepherds (4%), Labrador Retrievers (5%) and Rottweilers (3%).

Internal breeding annually provides about 700 puppies of high working capacities (fit for training and subsequent use in the operative and search activities).

FOR THE TIME BEING, THERE ARE MORE THAN 13,000 SERVICE DOGS OF ABOUT 40 BREEDS IN THE CANINE UNITS OF THE MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR OF RUSSIA. 45

F E AT U R E D K- 9 U N I T : M I N I S T R Y O F T H E I N T E R I O R O F R U S S I A C A N I N E U N I T S

TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE DOG HANDLERS Training of the police dog handlers consists of the following stages: • Professional (initial) training before appointment to the police; • Professional upgrading (every 5 years).

The training is conducted in the three specialized educational institutions of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia; dog handler schools. High quality training is maintained owing to the feedback with the customers; that is the police units where would-be dog handlers are to serve. The first training module (140 days) includes the basics of the profession, physical training, firearms training, legal training as well as general and special dog training methods for some areas of their use.

The second training module includes two professional upgrading programs (12 and 84 days) aimed at improving dog training skills and tactics of the service dog use. All the training programs include both theoretical courses and practical exercises. Upon completion of the training, the students pass exams and the dogs’ fitness is checked. If necessary, the school specialists give recommendations for further service dog training on the spot. In order to improve

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activity of the territorial canine services of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia, the training sessions of the specialists directly involved in dog training are organized at the canine centers.

Each year, more than 160 dog handlers participate in such sessions conducted by the leading experts in this field and then share acquired knowledge within their units.

Annual individual and team competitions between the canine units, as ministerial multidiscipline dog handling championships, are also important for maintaining high professional level. The best dog handlers (i.e., the winners of regional competitions) participate in these events. In order to ensure impartial judging, representatives of various law enforcement services, including veterans and specialists from non-governmental organizations experienced in the service dog training and use, are invited.

Such competitions strengthen the team spirit and stimulate elaboration and implementation of advanced methods of the service dog training and use and improvement of their skills. In addition, a team of dog handlers from the Ministry of the Interior of Russia participates in annual competitions between the canine units from various federal law enforcement services.

TRAINING METHODS FOR SERVICE DOGS Contemporary methods used for the service dog training in the Ministry of the Interior of Russia include all known ways to form and modify behavior going well beyond the patterns of classical conditioning. The use of service dogs in the police work is based on the dog’s capacity to cooperative interaction with the dog handler in achieving a mutually beneficial result. Such interaction, that is the obligatory participation of the dog handler, is a basic condition to achieve the best results of the use of the dogs.

The clicker, a widely used method of service dog training in the Ministry of the Interior of Russia, is based on instrumental conditioning (operant learning) and makes it possible to train within an optimum time frame a service dog fit for further efficient use in operational activities of the Russian Police. Signal indication made by the police dog shall meet three requirements: not to damage

the object of inspection, to be easily recognized by the dog handler and to be natural for the dog.

Even though active contact indication can be easily recognized as a signal behavior, for the time being, it is not used in the service dogs’ training.

When searching potentially explosive objects, such indication is inadmissible for safety reasons and in other cases, it can entail reimbursement for the objects damaged during inspection.

Modern training methods make it possible to train a service dog to take any position convenient in a particular situation focusing on its duration and forming a specific freezing, which is easily noted by the dog handler and recognized as a signal indication that is also a passive no-touch indication of the target substance. Nowadays, passive no-touch indication of the target substance by the service dog is the only indication method accepted by the Russian Police agencies.

SIGNAL INDICATION MADE BY THE POLICE DOG SHALL MEET THREE REQUIREMENTS: NOT TO DAMAGE THE OBJECT OF INSPECTION, TO BE EASILY RECOGNIZED BY THE DOG HANDLER AND TO BE NATURAL FOR THE DOG. 47