Identifying and defining training standards applicable to canines in criminal justice

Question

Paper identifying and defining training standards applicable to canines in criminal justice. In this paper, you will be examining the differences in training styles within the police service dog community.

Your paper should clearly contain:

Discussion of the differences between aggressive indications by drug dogs and passive indications

Issues that should be clearly examined with any problems they present

Discussion of the differences between tracking dogs and trailing dogs

Issues should be clearly examined comparing the advantages and disadvantages of each technique

Why it is important for law enforcement agencies to train their service canines to specific standards

These items need not be stated verbatim within the paper but addressed as part of the exposition of the essay.

Answer

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The use of canines by law enforcement agencies has become very common. Likewise, the public’s expectations regarding their availability and accessibility have also increased. Citizens who feel victimized may expect a canine to be used if it could help in solving the crime puzzle. However, training standards for canine for use in criminal justice can be very expensive to maintain. There are significant differences in the training styles used within the police service dog community.

Keeping canine resources available at any time is an expensive undertaking. In order for the police service dog community to succeed in its work, neighboring agencies, as well as agencies with concurrent jurisdictions, are sometimes engaged. In this case, service delivery agreements are developed with the aim of ensuring that canine resources are available round the clock.

Additionally, collaborations are often entered into that facilitate training exercises. In this regard, canine services expectedly differ from one agency to the other. This may lead to unintended outcomes that lead to unpredicted liabilities as a result of resource sharing. In the United States, several professional organizations have already established effective training curricula that seem to have significantly improved the level of professionalism of police canines.

Differences between aggressive indications by drug dogs and passive indications

Indications are trained responses. Indications can sometimes be a replication of alerts, only that when they are accompanied by the reinforcement of training, all indications become more pronounced. Indications can either be active (aggressive) or passive. Some examples of aggressive indicators include barking, scratching, a re-find and behavior that the dog is trained to portray whenever he finds someone.

Active indications facilitate the task of pinpointing the exact location of a subject since they are always clear, pronounced and unmistakable(Scott & Fuller, 1974). This is a big advantage especially during the search for a live subject in the wilderness. However, it can be disadvantageous during a crime scene or cadaver search. Active indications can be a cause of hazard to the dog, destruction of evidence, property damage. Concerns also tend to be raised with regard to the perceptions of the bystanders who fail to comprehend what is going on. Additionally, the safety of the dog may also be jeopardized.

Some examples of passive indications include lying down, sitting, staring or pointing. These indications are often taught to special cadaver search dogs that work in sensitive areas, in the public view or crime scenes. There are slim chances of these indications triggering property damage, hazard to the dog, destruction of evidence or public disturbance. Passive indications are rather difficult to train with undisputed certainty.

Since passive indications are behaviors that dogs engage in all the time, they may be more difficult for handlers to read with complete certainty. Additionally, unlike active indications, they are not self-rewarding for the dog. Chances of the exact subject of the search being pinpointed are rather lower.

Differences between tracking dogs and trailing dogs

            Tracking dogs recognize and follow human scent while identifying articles along the way. Precision is a very important attribute for a tracking dog. The main disadvantage of tracking dogs is that they take a very long time to train a combat tracking dog with backtracking capabilities (between 180 and 260 days) (Hepper& Wells, 2005).

On the other hand, trailing dogs trail and identify a specific person correctly in a field setting. Trailing dogs are known to be scent-discriminative. They can follow a ground trail that is laid by the skin rafts that fall from a person as he travels through the field. The main disadvantage of trailing dogs is that, as weather conditions change and time elapses, the limited pool available continues to dissipate.

The need for law enforcement agencies to train their service canines to certain standards
            According to the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, (2007), the public has very high expectations of police services. The introduction of quality canine resources is often seen as an ideal way of complementing this performance expectation. When service canines are trained to certain standards, they can be used for issues that are very time-sensitive such as locating missing persons and tracking wanted persons.

            The use of canines in law enforcement has also received a lot of attention in recent years. Debates on the use of canines in areas such as correctional and detention facilities bring to the fore a number of policy issues. Most of these issues are similar to those that law enforcement professionals face. One policy consideration is on quality and standards of training. All policy considerations revolve around how these canines can be utilized as a safety and security tool without posing a danger to the public, the handlers or the subjects.

            In order for these policy issues to be addressed in the right way, dog training tasks should be conducted using certain set guidelines. The police service dog community should enter into service delivery agreements with various agencies. The agencies and jurisdictions that are selected should be those that have complied with certain standardized dog training standards. This is one of the most effective ways of improving the police service dog community while at the time avoiding any potential liabilities.

References

Hepper, P. & Wells, D. (2005) How Many Footsteps Do Dogs Need to Determine the Direction of an Odour Trail? Chemical Senses,30(4), 291-298

Scott, J. & Fuller, J. (1974) Dog behavior: the genetic basis, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, (2007) Blueprints for Change: Criminal Justice Policy Issues in Virginia: Canine Training andLaw Enforcement,http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/blueprints/Canine.pdf retrieved on May 31, 2010.