Caution key to protecting drug-sniffing dogs
Rittman Police Patrolman Dave Miller, the department’s K-9 officer and SWAT commander, explained handlers like him keep their canines safe through a variety of precautions in the dangerous opiate epidemic underway. File photo by BOB MOREHEAD
Two unrelated drug incidents in May not far from The Post’s home mentally converged to form a poignant question in the midst of the opiate crisis – how are the drug-sniffing dogs safe from overdoses?
Around the second week of May, a police officer in East Liverpool, Ohio, returning from a drug bust, noticed some stray white powder on his shirt and absently brushed it off with his hand. Not long after, at the station, he collapsed in an overdose, to be revived by his colleagues with naloxone. He had absorbed the powerful opiate due to the accidental residue from the arrest through his skin when he brushed it off his shirt.
A week or so later, a veterinarian in North Ridgeville used naloxone to revive a pet dog that had gotten into its owner’s stash of heroin and overdosed; the vet notified police.
The question then is, since potent opiates like carfentenil are so dangerous that even a few grains absently brushed off a shirt can cause an officer to overdose, what is keeping police dogs safe as they literally have their noses right in the game?
The answer is diligence, according to Patrolman Dave Miller, Rittman’s K-9 officer.
“This has always been an issue,” Miller said. “We are prepared and we look for all the dangers ahead of time.”
Miller said K-9 units are trained to search for possible contraband outside a vehicle (or a locker, in the case of school sweeps).
“We don’t do an interior search unless we absolutely have to,” Miller said.
Miller said that when his partner alerts on a car, it is then the human’s responsibility to complete the search, donning gloves and a mask and exercising extreme care. Officers, he said, seal any contraband they find in plastic bags and then wrap all of that in plastic wrap.
“This is why you generally do not see a large amount of K-9s overdosing,” Miller said. “K-9s have a specific job and we don’t allow the dog to do certain things.”
In the event his partner should, in spite of all the precautions, ingest a dangerous drug, the K-9 vehicle has a kit issued by a veterinarian to counteract the effects, plus all officers carry naloxone as well.
Around the second week of May, a police officer in East Liverpool, Ohio, returning from a drug bust, noticed some stray white powder on his shirt and absently brushed it off with his hand. Not long after, at the station, he collapsed in an overdose, to be revived by his colleagues with naloxone. He had absorbed the powerful opiate due to the accidental residue from the arrest through his skin when he brushed it off his shirt.
A week or so later, a veterinarian in North Ridgeville used naloxone to revive a pet dog that had gotten into its owner’s stash of heroin and overdosed; the vet notified police.
The question then is, since potent opiates like carfentenil are so dangerous that even a few grains absently brushed off a shirt can cause an officer to overdose, what is keeping police dogs safe as they literally have their noses right in the game?
The answer is diligence, according to Patrolman Dave Miller, Rittman’s K-9 officer.
“This has always been an issue,” Miller said. “We are prepared and we look for all the dangers ahead of time.”
Miller said K-9 units are trained to search for possible contraband outside a vehicle (or a locker, in the case of school sweeps).
“We don’t do an interior search unless we absolutely have to,” Miller said.
Miller said that when his partner alerts on a car, it is then the human’s responsibility to complete the search, donning gloves and a mask and exercising extreme care. Officers, he said, seal any contraband they find in plastic bags and then wrap all of that in plastic wrap.
“This is why you generally do not see a large amount of K-9s overdosing,” Miller said. “K-9s have a specific job and we don’t allow the dog to do certain things.”
In the event his partner should, in spite of all the precautions, ingest a dangerous drug, the K-9 vehicle has a kit issued by a veterinarian to counteract the effects, plus all officers carry naloxone as well.