MEMORANDUM 07-26

DATE:

February 16, 2007

TO:

City Manager Wrede

FROM:

Chief Robl

SUBJECT:

K-9 Unit

 

 

I support the efforts of local citizens to provide a K-9 for drug enforcement efforts on the southern Kenai Peninsula.  I believe it would be of great benefit to have the dog cross-trained for search and rescue work as well.  To ensure that the K-9 team maintains a high level of expertise, it will probably need to work more cases than the Homer Police Department alone can provide.  Also, the people involved in illegal drug activity operate freely without regard for political boundaries.  Basing the K-9 with the State Troopers will help to ensure that multi-jurisdictional cases can be successfully investigated with minimal problems.  Therefore, I support establishing the new K-9 program with the Alaska State Troopers in Anchor Point and I request that we ask the City Council for a resolution of support.

 

The Homer Police Department made twenty arrests for drug related crimes in 2005 and thirty-two in 2006.  These cases were made incidental to normal patrol work.  In 2004 we were able to assign an investigator to work drug investigations full time for part of the year.  The result was forty-four arrests on drug related charges.  The presence of a K-9 unit during the service of search warrants associated with these cases would have certainly resulted in the seizure of more controlled substances and contraband.

 

Our statistics are not broken down adequately to be able to determine the exact number of search and rescue/missing persons type cases that would have benefited from the presence of a trained K-9.  We list thirty-four cases under this general category in 2005 and forty-four in 2006.  In 2006 we requested a K-9 for search assistance once and to the best of my knowledge could have used one on three other occasions.  I believe our numbers are similar for 2005.  It is my understanding that a K-9 can be trained for both drug detection and search and rescue work.  I have personally been involved in several searches over the past twenty years that could have utilized a K-9.  One life saved through a successful search is a benefit of priceless value.