Local Law Enforcement Agencies Receive 2 New Bomb Dogs
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Our region has two new bomb dogs that sniff for danger.
When you think of bomb dogs, you might think of TSA at airports or military operations overseas.
Two Labrador retrievers, Charlie and Waverly, were trained together and now offer an extra layer of protection aboard regional transit trains and at UC Davis.
"I think she's a huge asset. I mean, you can't take our noses or our detection skills and equate them to a dog's," said Sacramento P.D. Ofc. Clayton Buchanan.
Clayton rides RT all day with Waverly, sweeping trains and stations for explosives. He says getting Waverly was not in response to any specific threat, but more police departments are training bomb dogs to be proactive, given unstable situations overseas.
"The need being that you have…multiple people coming in and out and it's not a controlled environment," said Buchanan.
Waverly can diffuse suspicious bag calls in seconds with just a couple sniffs. And she'll come in handy when the new downtown arena is built, since the NBA requires local law enforcement to use bomb dogs before every game.
Waverly and Charlie both conducted sweeps for President Clinton's visit to UC Davis this week. VIP visits and big events are just the reason UC Davis wanted a bomb dog.
We've had use with the Yolo County Bomb Squad on campus before and this gives us an opportunity to kind of give back and to help them," said UC Davis P.D. Officer Kevin Skaife.
Charlie was adopted from a rescue group and Waverly from a service dog organization. Skaife says the dogs' intense interest in toys made them stand out.
"When they find those articles, when they find the bombs, it's all play time to them. So if they're interested in that toy, we can do this all day long," he said.
It will be a rare day if the dogs ever find actual explosives, so they're always training and also building relationships with the public.
"A lot of people don't want to be around officers all the time, but with the dog it makes a more friendly environment," said Buchanan.
Charlie and Waverly are also both trained to search for evidence with human scent at crime scenes. Waverly actually found a gun on her first day during a non-RT related call.
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