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q You can see how dangerous it can be for the handler to be up front and walking by himself. If the answer is ���no��� to any of these questions, you might be asking for trouble and should rethink if you and your dog are ready for this kind of search. Armed Suspects Some of you may be thinking, ���Why would I use my dog to search for an armed suspect?��� My response is, ���Why wouldn���t you use your dog?��� We use dogs to search for armed or possibly armed suspects in patrol operation all the time. I don���t use my dog as the frst response to an armed situation by sending my dog on a suicide mission. But after everything has failed to bring the situation to a peaceful conclusion, such as: negotiations, K9 announcements, throw phones, robots, gas, fash-bangs and even deadly force, and the decision has been made to start the search, instead of sending a human into harm���s way frst, why not send a properly trained police dog to search frst and clear the way for patrol ofcer and SWAT? It may sound cold and heartless, but if the dog is hurt or killed while conducting the search, the dog has done its job by locating the suspect. I know it sounds insensitive, but as much as I love and care for my police dog, he is a tool and can be replaced. As far as I���m concerned, neither my brother or sister ofcer nor myself are replaceable. I would hate to be the person who contacted my wife to inform her there was a police dog available to search for the suspect, but the department did not want the dog injured, so they sent your husband and his team into the location frst and they were injured or killed. How would that sound in a civil lawsuit? Overwhelming Versus Excessive Force In a situation where an armed suspect is in the open and confronting the police, a police dog may not be the appropriate or your frst line of attack. Tis does not mean you may not eventually use the dog in this situation, but only after every efort has been exhausted to have the suspect surrender peacefully and comply with your orders. When it is fnally time for ofcers to take action, why not send the dog in conjunction with multiple less-lethal options such as: multiple bean bag rounds, pepper ball, fash-bangs, gas and even 37mm or 40mm less-lethal rounds? By using overwhelming force in conjunction p Have your backup offcers walk next to the handler instead of behind the handler. with a K9, this gives the dog a better chance of survival in confronting armed suspects one on one. Tis as an Overwhelming Force Option. Is overwhelming force and excessive force the same thing? Te answer is no. Overwhelming force is using reasonable and necessary multiple less-lethal force options to afect the arrest in what might be close to a deadly force situation. Briefng Training Handlers should be giving some type of K9 briefng training at least once a month if not more. It doesn���t have to be a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation. You will be surprised how much information you can talk about in a three- to fve-minute presentation. You can cover such topics as setting up perimeters to help increase your success rate in fnding the suspect, K9 search tactics during a building or area search, tactical tracking formations for patrol ofcer with your dog, arrest techniques, felony trafc stops, and what you expect the back-up ofcers to do and what they can expect from you. Another way to have briefng training is to debrief K9 deployments that occurred during your previous shift so everyone can learn from the situation. It can also bring up good training points for your next K9 briefng training. When you are done with your briefng training, make sure you document in your train logs what topic you covered, who was there, and what occurred. Brad Smith retired from the West Covina, Calif. Police after 30 years of service. He was a K9 handler and trainer for 25 years and a SWAT dog handler for 18 years. Smith designed and implemented a K9 SWAT & K9 Patrol Tactical School called SKIDDS and CATS www.skidds.com. He can be reached at Topdogwck1@aol.com. Post your comments on this story by visiting www.trmagonline.com www.trmagonline.com 19