Gilroy
– Gilroy police searching vehicles or homes for drugs now turn
to someone who can do the job faster and more thoroughly than human
officers: The furry, four-legged Cento, one of the department’s two
K9 dogs.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Gilroy police searching vehicles or homes for drugs now turn to someone who can do the job faster and more thoroughly than human officers: The furry, four-legged Cento, one of the department’s two K9 dogs.
For about seven weeks now, Cento, roughly 4 years old, has been putting his new drug-sniffing skills to use. It remains to be seen how many stashes of drugs he will find that otherwise could go undetected, but there’s no question his training will go far in the Gilroy Police Department.
“It is absolutely an asset to have,” said Sgt. Kurt Svardal, who supervises the K9 units.
Officer Ryan Hollar, 35, handles Cento, who recently completed a month-long, five-day-a-week training course to learn to sniff out drugs such as marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin and hash.
“Basically, it’s a matter of teaching the dog the different narcotic scents, and also teaching the dog to go look for them,” Svardal said. “It becomes a big game of hide-and-seek to the dog.”
Cento and Kimbo, the other GPD German shepherd, have been patrol dogs for about three and eight years, respectively. They are trained to protect their handlers and sniff out people – for example, they locate crime suspects who may be hiding in a building. Other K9 training can include SWAT-like courses and explosives programs.
Officers call on Cento and officer Hollar if they suspect drugs are involved in a call or incident and have a legal right to search, most often requesting the K9 for certain traffic stops. Hollar said he is available whenever an officer needs Cento to perform a search.
“I can be called out from home, or if I’m working, they can call me to a drug stop if they think here might be drugs in the car,” Hollar, who has been with GPD for six years, said.
Humans are able to smell some drugs, Svardal said, but not to the extent or with the precision that dogs like Cento can.
“Their nose is so much more potent,” he said. “They can smell things that we cannot smell. A dog can go through the entire room and he’ll tell you there’s drugs in here, and he’ll tell you where they are.”
Cento helped Gilroy police find drugs between five and 10 times at traffic stops since completing training, Hollar said. If officers pull a driver over and end up making an arrest, they can then search the person’s car.
“Most of the time, there’s nothing in the car, or it’s already been found by the officer and they’re not sure if there’s more,” he said.
After Cento sniffs for drugs, the officers search for weapons.
Cento accompanied members of the GPD’s Anti-Crime Team on a probation violation sweep last month, too, but found no drugs.
The K9 unit also accompanies officers executing search warrants.
“I give him a command that tells him to sniff, that always means he’s looking for drugs and not people,” Hollar said.
Hollar gives Cento a specific sniff command, depending on what type of search is being executed. The dog is trained to “alert on,” or react to, the scent when he finds it, by scratching or biting.
Hollar rewards Cento with a toy after completing the search – one for a body search and another for a narcotics search.
Earlier this year, Wal-Mart donated $5,600 to the GPD for training two dogs to search for drugs. A second dog will be trained, Svardal said, but it won’t be Kimbo, the department’s other K9. That dog is nearing retirement from the force, but within a year or two, his replacement will be drug-detection trained.
The training course, offered by the private vendor that sold the K9 dogs to the GPD, took Holler and Cento to numerous locations to get the dog accustomed to change, Svardal said. They traveled all over the Bay Area, visiting different buildings because the dog must be able to adapt to and search in any environment.
Cento will be re-certified for narcotics searches on a yearly basis. A representative of the training agency will visit Gilroy to watch him and Hollar in action, making sure they still meet the standards of certification.
Svardal himself was a police dog handler in the past and said there were some cases where officers would not have made an arrest had it not been for the drug-sniffing dog.
“For the dog, it’s play-time,” Svardal said.
