K-9 Units And The Law Enforcement Essay

For many years we have watched police movies or even TV shows where they show a police officer with his companion being not an officer, but a dog. This is actually a special unit in law enforcement where these dogs are trained to find bombs, dead bodies, and drugs. These dogs come in handy for crime scenes, airports, and narcotic investigations. The canine unit evolved from two handlers and dogs in 1981. The original handlers were Detective Lydell Wall and Sgt. Lloyd Allen, their respective canines were Si and Bean. Today, the unit consists of six handlers and canines, a unit supervisor and unit commander. A police dog is a dog that is trained specifically to assist police and similar law-enforcement personnel with their work. Police dogs are often referred to by the term K9, which sounds like the term canine, a word that generally refers to the dog. The intentional injury or killing of a police dog is a felony, subjecting the perpetrator to harsher penalties than for those involved with animal cruelty. Depending on the case, the perpetrator may be charged the same as if a human officer were injured or killed, and one of the reasons being is because these dogs are very valuable and can cost anywhere between $10,000. A good number of forces outfit dogs with bulletproof vests, providing the dogs their own police badges and IDs. Furthermore, a police dog killed in the line of duty is traditionally given a full police funeral and burial just as they would for a human officer. If the dog is killed or injured by another animal, like a big cat, bear, or another dog, the animal would be shot. Police dogs rarely go to cases involving other animals like drug dealers using other dogs or exotic animals to guard the evidence to avoid the death of their police dog. Not only are these dogs important to the corresponding police officer because of duty, but mostly because these