The Charlottesville Police Department will add a four-legged member to its force in about a year, Captain Wendy Lewis said. The bomb-detecting “K-9” will partner with an existing officer and work full-time for the department.
Lewis said she thinks it is time for Charlottesville to commission its own bomb-detecting dog — a resource which could help increase the safety of police officers and the larger community. With greater numbers coming to and passing through the city — and expected further growth — Lewis said the Charlottesville Police Department is looking for better ways to protect residents and visitors.
“We have seen a growth in a number of special events, races, concerts, parades,” Lewis said. “We also have become a pretty good venue for politicians for campaign races and so forth and we have to call in additional resources to make sure these areas are secure.”
The city police department already manages two K-9 patrol dogs, which specialize in locating narcotics and suspect apprehension. Neither has training in bomb detection.
“Our plans at the moment are to get a bomb-detecting K-9 dog,” Lewis said. “We have identified an officer that already has the basic skill set.”
Though Charlottesville does have access to bomb-detecting dogs through Albemarle County police, response times can be inconsistent.
“If we have a need for bomb-detecting dogs we can call on a neighboring jurisdiction: Albemarle County, U.Va. and the state police,” Lewis said. “[However] they are not always available to respond, ... We have had numerous calls of bomb threats, usually we have to call another jurisdiction to ascertain whether the threat is real. We have to maintain the scene until the resources are available.”
Lewis said having a reliable K-9 unit within the City of Charlottesville will minimize future problems.
“This [addition of the K-9 unit] allows for us to respond much quicker and secure scenes much faster,” Lewis said. “The officer we have identified lives in the city and it would only take him a matter of minutes to respond.”
Lewis said the decision to acquire a bomb-sniffing dog is the result of considerable discussion.
“We have been exploring the feasibility for the past two years,” Lewis said. “Training will be in March, and it will last about three months and then he will be on-the-job training. It will be about 9 to 12 months until he is fully deployed.”
While not aware of many details of the K-9 addition to the Charlottesville Police Force, University Chief of Police Michael Gibson said he believes it will be helpful for all local agencies.
“We live in a small community with a finite number of law enforcement resources,” Gibson said in an email. “It is not uncommon for any of the local agencies (Albemarle, Charlottesville, U.Va. and VSP) to call upon one another when we need either more or specialized resources to address an incident. … If we needed something from any of the other agencies, or if they needed anything from us, we would not hesitate to ask.”
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