Two Labrador retrievers are about to complete their six-week training course for the NC State University Police Department, becoming the first person-borne explosive detection dogs used by a North Carolina police department. The dogs, named Reed and Ford, will make their debut to the public Thursday at the William and Mary football game at Carter-Finley Stadium.
“Instead of doing the traditional search of a vehicles, buildings, things of that nature, they’re identifying the scent of explosives coming from an individual and tracking it back to that individual,” said Jack Moorman, chief of the NC State University Police Department. “A lot of your major league baseball teams, their police departments have a vapor wake or person-borne dogs, so a lot of athletic venues are really starting to use them, but again it’s been very recent, just in the last few years.”
In addition to sporting events, Reed and Ford will be around campus on a daily basis, according to University Police Department Major David Kelly. Person-borne explosive detection dogs have the ability to scan up to 150 people per minute and locate weapons, narcotics or explosives, according to the K9 training company working with the police department.
“They will be on regular patrol duty throughout campus, so certainly the students, staff, and faculty will see them within the area, but again this is certainly one of those assets for police department that is something that is needed especially in the days and times that we are in now,” Kelly said.
According to Moorman, many universities already have dogs who can detect explosives, such as UNC-Greensboro, and the K9s that NC State will be receiving will have those same basic detections skills, but NC State’s police department is taking that an extra step by buying dogs that are trained to specifically identify and track person-borne explosives.
“Particularly in the environment that we’re in now, we are trying to be prepared for potential for terrorism or different incidents. Having a bomb dog is really a need at a university,” Moorman said.
Moorman said that the idea of dogs tracking back explosives to an individual is a relatively new idea. Auburn University first developed the technology about three years ago with AMK9 called Vapor Wake.
NC State is working with the only other company that has these specialized person-borne explosive detection dogs, K2 Solutions, Inc. Every dog that K2 Solutions trains goes through both basic and advanced obedience courses. After that, clients can request additional, more specialized training.
Moorman did not have a specific total for how much this would cost, but he said that it is a smart financial decision that is in the best interest of the university’s safety.
“We want to make sure we are doing our part to keep our campus community safe,” Moorman said. “And for something that is a relatively small financial investment to add a couple of dogs and to have an added level of security for 60,000 spectators and our 30,000 students here on campus you know if we can prevent a potential act of terrorism then that’s money well spent.”
Several Major League Baseball teams are using person-borne explosive detection dogs already, and Kelly thinks even more agencies will move toward this type of security in the near future.
“There is an increased concern, and I’m not saying specifically for NC State, but just across the nation in general, there is the need to have increased efforts in preventing terrorism and having explosive detection capabilities,” Moorman said. “We would be negligent if we didn’t have any such capabilities on campus.”
