Insider | Man's Best Friend, and Partner: Inside Look At The Sheriff Department's Canines

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Man's Best Friend, and Partner: Inside Look At The Sheriff Department's Canines

Written by Andrew Park 13/12/2024

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(Pictured Above: A Sheriff's Canine taking a nap.) 

(Pictured Above: The same Canine, 2-year-old Bubba, closer to the fence.) 

 

 

Every day, law enforcement officers in our city put their lives on the line to protect the people of Los Santos and uphold the law. During any one of their many shifts and patrols, they can have dangerous, lethal encounters that could leave their families with an extra seat open at the dinner table. No one denies the risk that those who don a badge consistently face, however, there's another type of officer that often goes overlooked: police canines. Perhaps an unsung hero, these furry, determined peacekeepers are a vital cog in the wheel that makes law enforcement, law enforcement. They use their powerful snout to sniff out various items, like firearms, explosives, and narcotics, giving their handlers and department a massive advantage over law breakers. Some also have the ability to track people, making hiding a non-option. 

 

However, while most people may know of these dogs' existence, how they become vital assets to law enforcement and their general capabilities tend to be unknown. Los Santos Insider was able to get into contact with the Sheriff's Department for an interview with Sergeant Fitzgerald and Bubba, a Belgian Malinois, to fully get an understanding of what's expected of these dogs, the standard they're held to and their professionalism, and what their responsibilities are. 

 

(Pictured Above: Bubba with his handler, Sergeant Noah Fitzgerald, Senora's Station Canine Team Leader.)

 

 

A. Park: "When it comes to training the dogs, what's the process that they go through to be able to be reliable? Were you involved in that process?"

 

Sergeant Fitzgerald: "Actually, our Department purchases the majority of our dogs from the Adlerhorst International training facility, which imports them from other countries and gives them their foundational training."

 

A. Park: "What exactly are these dogs able to track off of their scent? Is it just the scent from clothes or are there other factors that one of your dogs are able to go off of? And when they get what they need, how successful are they at locating who or what they're tasked with finding?"

 

Sergeant Fitzgerald: "As you know, dogs have noses that are upwards of 10,000 times stronger than ours. When it comes to tracking humans? They have the ability to smell the pheromones secreted from your skin. As for firearms? They are trained to detect the odor of gunpowder. This means they could potentially alert to firearms, magazines, bullet casings, anything with a residual odor of gunpowder. And lastly... for narcotics... they're trained by the scent of that drug. Dogs can learn multiple scents for multiple substances. However, we do not cross-train our dogs to detect both guns /AND/ drugs. It's either one or the other."

 

A. Park: "Ahh, okay, so they're specialized."

 

Sergeant Fitzgerald: "Exactly." 

 

A. Park: "I would assume that there are stressful, dangerous situations for the dogs that you guys can't necessarily shield them from. How does your department's handlers deal with these type of situations with a canine?"

 

Sergeant Fitzgerald: "I know a lot of folks might not want to hear this but... Ultimately, these dogs are a tool in law enforcement. A vast majority of the situations our dogs are involved in end up being highly stressful and dangerous. That's routine for them and we're not afraid to deploy a dog if it means it can prevent a Deputy from having to engage with a suspect and lose their life. With that being said, we also do our best to make sure we're only deploying our dogs where absolutely necessary. We won't deploy a dog in a situation where the dog might pose an undue risk to the general public. Our Canine handlers are given the discretion to make that judgement on their own, and in the heat of the moment."

 

A. Park: "The one thing that I think everyone knows is how canines catch their targets, biting. When it comes to canines biting their suspects, their targets, are they trained to keep biting? Or is there a certain cue you guys give them for to stop? And how do they understand the difference between a suspect and another Deputy?"

 

Sergeant Fitzgerald: "Yes. Our dogs are trained to latch onto suspects until they are commanded by their handler to release them. They don't always let up so easily, so our handlers are trained to physically remove the dog from the suspect when it is safe to do so. As for telling folks apart... That's not always cut-and-dried. If we're deploying a dog, we have to be very careful in foot pursuits. We generally coordinate with other Deputies to make sure none of us are running in front of the dog when it's released, in order to prevent it from accidentally biting one of us."

 

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In order to demonstrate exactly how proficient in their work police canines are, Sergeant Fitzgerald and Bubba gave us a quick practice run to show how canines are able to track via scent. I was given a prop gun that Bubba, who specializes in tracking weapons, would be able to sniff out. I ran away and received a 30-second head start to hide while Bubba caught the scent of the firearm. After a few seconds of waiting, Bubba found me hid away in a corner a decent distance away from where I had started: 

 

(Above: Bubba tracking via the prop weapon, recorded with a GoPro camera.)

 

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There's a lot of preparation, hard work, and discipline that a dog puts in on the path to becoming a certified canine with a law enforcement agency. It's a long, arduous process, however it's necessary to ensure that canines are the absolute best and reliable that they can be. Their training is what makes them qualified to conduct their daily duties, as Bubba demonstrated. With this in mind, it's clear these furry law enforcers are professionals in their own specialization, and are taught to serve the interest of the people in the city that they protect, as those who are tasked with upholding the law should be. Of course, the Sheriff's Department is very glad to have these canines as their partners, as one thing is for certain: it is very difficult to outrun a police canine.

 

(Above: Sergeant Fitzgerald and Bubba running.)

 

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