Using your offender management system to track K-9 Team Training and Utilization
Posted by Dennis Fetzer on Mon, Jun 15, 2009 @ 10:28 AM
Since most professional corrections associations recommend that cells and areas of the jail and prison be searched a minimum of every 20-30 days, I believe this should include the use of both drug detection and explosive detection dog teams. This would better ensure that illegal drugs and firearms have not been secreted into the facility.
Also, there is the capability to train and set up drug or explosive detection dogs at personnel entry points. The construction of the entry way keeps the dog from coming in contact with personnel but the air flow is directed from the personnel entering to the dog. If the dog distinguishes the odor it is trained to detect, then it will indicate the presence of the odor by either sitting or lying down. Check out the following website: http://www.k-9eods.com/ for more information.
Dogs are also being trained to detect cell phones. I personally have not seen how this training is conducted and I'm not sure what odor the dog is being trained to respond to, but here is a link to an article on the subject http://k9pride.com/2009/04/19/bomber-sniffs-out-jail-cell-phones/
In addition to drugs, explosives and cell phones, dogs have been trained to detect and respond to other contraband odors such as alcohol or jail-made hooch. Here's an article that gives several recipes for jailhouse intoxicants. http://www.moderndrunkardmagazine.com/issues/11-03/11-03-jailhouse.htm
Both DSI/ITI's Offender Management System (OMS) and Offender Management System Evolution (OMSe) have the capability to create separate locations in the application, allowing you to set up distinct physical and virtual locations. To track K-9 team training and utilization, you can create a virtual location called "K-9" and configure the header, screens and search parameters for entering demographic information on the K-9 teams and for tracking their training and utilization. Using OMS/OMSe to track K-9 team training and actual searches along with their finds will make it easier to monitor the success ratio and percentage of proficiency.
Using this system, Administrators will be able to ensure all parts of the jail or prison are searched within the recommended twenty to thirty day time period. It will also make sure that the teams are not setting up a pattern that the inmates and other staff can use to circumvent being detected.
I believe that with proper planning a jail can drastically improve their security by implementing or expanding K-9 utilization within the facility. It will take some work, but in the end you will have mobile and flexible detection capability that can't be beat.
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