The Syracuse Police Department is seeking an approval from the Syracuse City Common Council regarding an application for a $15,000 grant to strengthen its K-9 unit.

Common Council Majority Leader Steven Thompson said in an email that the grant — which will be provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security — would enable the unit to purchase the equipment it needs to enhance explosive detection capabilities.

Legislation asking for the Council’s permission is expected to pass through the Council by Wednesday, said Common Council Minority Leader Joseph Carni.

“I am wholeheartedly in favor of this (legislation),” Carni said. “This is a great thing. Our K-9 has a very valuable asset to the city and to the police department and it is very important that we have this.”

He said he was initially concerned of whether the funds would be jointly used by the city and the Onondaga County, both of which share the same facility.

Carni said Thompson, who is a public safety committee chairman, initially proposed the legislation. But Carni was not sure whether the legislation assures the funds would be efficiently used in a joint K-9 training facility run by the city of Syracuse and Onondaga Country for more than 20 years.

Specifically, based on Carni’s understanding, he said he did not get an answer on whether the city and the county would continue its relationship after receiving the grant and wanted to make sure the city would have access to the facility. Those concerns were addressed after Carni reached out to the county, he said.

Charles Warren, a trainer and owner of Collective K9 Dog Training in Syracuse, said dogs have the outstanding ability to detect explosives that technology cannot keep up with.

While a human possesses only 5 million olfactory receptors in the nose, Warren said the average dog has 300 million. In addition, he said people only have one airway that brings air in and out, whereas dogs have two separate chambers within their nose, one for breathing and another one specifically for scent and smell.

A dog’s ability to use nostrils separately, Warren said, makes the animal exceptional in identifying smell.

“If you are in a closed stadium, if someone squirts a perfume on the opposite side of the stadium (and) if the dog is on the other side of the stadium he can smell the scent, and not only smell the scent, but (also can) tell what individual ingredients are in the scent,” Warren said.

Most police departments, he said, don’t look for puppies and dogs older than 4 years for financial sustainability. Instead they are seeking so-called “green dogs” that range in age between 7 months old and 1 year old. The cost for breeding and training depends, but it is somewhere between $1,500 and $3,500.

Warren added that unlike dogs that are kept as pets for regular households, K-9s must also possess strong nerves to deal with high level of stress. But at the same time, he said, these dogs are not afraid of encountering a situation like a shooting or an explosion because they are trained to make association to gunshots or loud noise as the start of a game.

“What most dogs see as stressors, these dogs see as excitement as part of the game,” Warren said.

Published on October 4, 2016 at 11:58 pm

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