Thirty-five years ago today, I graduated from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office Patrol K9 School. It was 17 weeks of grueling training where my dog and I learned the basics of man tracking, apprehension, area search, building search, and obedience. There was a State of Florida Standards Examination at the end, where we had to demonstrate our proficiency. We passed and were remanded to our respective agencies for duty. I had never been so scared.
K9 School taught us the basics of patrol dog handling in a fairly sterile, safe environment. We tracked and caught fellow handlers as decoys. But our first police calls would be up against real “bad guys.” Meaning felons and desperate criminals. It had all been training and fun for the dogs up to this. We had to figure out the rest on our own.
When I started in the 1990’s, the handler and dog teams deployed by themselves. No one was following or providing a back-up. We felt a second officer or deputy might make for a crossfire if a shootout occurred. Nowadays, a second officer, usually a K9 handler, routinely accompanies the team in a serious case.
In my time, perimeter officers were at minimum over a quarter mile away, and a K9 team was literally on their own. No one would be there to help if needed. A handler had to rely on his/her own courage and wits to apprehend a suspect. The dog was there, but had no complex reasoning ability or lethal force capability if things went really wrong.
There were no GPS locators back then. The team’s position updates were made strictly by radio. A handler had to know where he was at all times. Tracks do not conveniently go past street signs. One of our K9 guys would get disoriented and ask dispatch for a license tag check in a driveway. Once they said he must be really lost because the tag came back to a city on the other coast.
I was fortunate that my first dog, K9 Cento, was a natural at the work. He tracked bad guys with precision and was keen to enter a fight when necessary. I could not have had a better partner when the going got dangerous. He saved us more than once. The same held true for my second dog, K9 Cubo, who also excelled in every area.
As I reminisce, I remember my time as the K9 Unit Sergeant years later. The newer dogs were trained with more positive reinforcement while gently reminded with e-collars. So much more civilized than our hard-ass-dog sessions from the past. The modern handlers told me their dogs would likely not stand up to the rigors of my era’s punitive demands. Potato, tomato.
When I was at the courthouse a month ago, I stopped to talk to a St. Petersburg K9 handler. I said I had graduated from their K9 School with my second dog in 1996. He drolly said he hadn’t been born yet. Ouchie. But I continued. I said I felt bad it was more difficult for them to catch bad guys because of cell phones and more paved areas on which to track than when I worked the streets. He frowned.
I worked my two patrol dogs during seven years on Midnight Shift. We made over 230 arrests. And K9 Cento and I made ten apprehensions in a month with three separate catches in a single night, which notched us a Distinguished Service Medal. We would later be awarded a Medal of Valor for a particularly serious call, but that is a story for another time…
Randall
