BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — K-9 officers with the Broken Arrow Police Department are getting some essential training this week, thirty-six K-9 teams from five states are attending. The police department and the North American Police Work Dog Association are teaching problem solving and building up the teams. Some K-9 officers are single-purpose, meaning they do either explosive or narcotic detection work. Others have a variety of jobs.
“Dual purpose would be that they’re doing the narcotic and explosive as well as utility work or patrol work," said Marque Baldwin, a K-9 officer with BAPD and assistant state coordinator for NAPWDA. "Which is basically tracking, bite work, building searches, area searches and evidence recovery.”
Wednesday's training focused on aggression control. Handlers prompted their K-9's to bite and control a suspect and then release.
“The basics of the ability to defeat the criminal element by their sense of smell and their ability to utilize that for the detection of explosives or illegal narcotics," Baldwin said. "As well as the criminal element that’s trying to evade capture or arrest is a tool that has tipped the scale in law enforcement’s favor.”
This is the Broken Arrow Police Department’s third year hosting the 4-day workshop. They say it is growing every year. The department has four K-9 officers that they say are so important to what they do.
“We use them for tracking suspects, we use them for finding illegal drugs, even simple things we use them on," said Chris Walker, public information officer for BAPD. "They come in super handy.”
The workshop also gives the K-9 handlers training in controlling the dogs.
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