Chris Bauer, a member of the Explorer troop sponsored by Batavia PD, got to play the bad guy during a demonstration of police dog work at Batavia High School on Sunday evening.
Deputy Chris Erion and K-9 "Destro" showed the Explorers how a police dog takes down a criminal suspect, hunts for drugs, seeks out a human hiding from police, and can find fresh human scent.
In each scenario, Erion had a different pattern of commands and motions, and a different toy for Destro's reward, so Destro would know which task he was supposed to perform in which circumstance. Destro is motivated to get that toy, his favorite being an old piece of fire hose he gets after finding drugs.
Erion spoke with the students about the value of dogs in police work, which not only makes it easier to find drugs, evidence, and people, K-9s have a great calming effect in disturbances involving combative suspects.
Destro searching for drugs. He's close. The sample of meth was in the mate to this Nike sneaker.
Destro with his fire hose toy.
Erion with the tennis ball used when he wants Destro to search for fresh human scent. This search might be used to find an item a criminal suspect might have left behind while fleeing from a scene. We saw Destro display this skill in January 2014 when he found a note dropped by a robbery suspect near the crime scene.
Destro alerting on a wallet that had been dropped in the grass by one of the Explorers.
