LAWRENCE COUNTY, AR (KAIT)
- Officers from all over northeast Arkansas are in training to spruce up their
crime fighting skills with their four legged partners.
The officers have spent
the past few days putting their K9 partners to the test during the Lawrence
County Sheriff's Office's the 3-day training course.
"It helps us fight the war
on drugs that we have such a big problem with in Arkansas," said Instructor
Blake Liscomb, who believes this training is vital to making better K9
handlers.
"We are also teaching them
about vehicle indicators and subject indicators and smuggling tactics and what
they should look for on the highway when they approach a violator," explained Layne
Mathis, who is a K9 officer with the Manila Police Department.
Liscomb says the drug
cartel has come up with all kinds of ways to hide drugs. It is finding the "out of sight"
drugs that make K9 units invaluable.
"It's not intrusive. We're not invading your personal space. K9 sniffs the exterior of a vehicle, and he
alerts. Then, we have probable cause to
search the vehicle without consent," Liscomb says.
"As I like to refer to a
dog is four legs of probable cause. Probable cause is our greatest tool when it
comes to searching vehicles. Vehicles are the biggest spot we try to fight
drugs because they've got to be moved," included Blake Bristow with the Jonesboro
Police Department.
This is the first year the
Lawrence County Sheriff's Department has hosted the K9 training session, and it
may not be the last.
Sheriff Jody Dotson of the
Lawrence County Sheriff's Department says they've had such a huge response of
other officers interested in signing up, and they intend to host the K9
training session again.
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