Canine Unit
[Duty Roles]

Narcotics: For Narcotic detection the dogs are trained to locate marijuana, powdered cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroin.

Tracking: Tracking uses the dog's keen sense of smell to detect and follow human scent. Officers Pimiento and Ayon have deployed Iwan and Atta to track not only criminals who have fled the scene, but also missing elderly individuals as well as lost children, hunters, and hikers.

Building Searches: Searches of commercial businesses are conducted by one canine team. Using the dog's sense of smell and speed is a better method of locating a suspect of suspects who are hiding inside a building. This practice minimizes the risk to officers and affords a suspect more incentive to surrender. The sound of a bark is often times all it takes.

Article Searches: Article searches are conducted when a person has either lost or thrown an item while committing a crime. Again, the dog’s keen sense of smell is used. Often it is more effective to deploy a canine in an area where there is poor lighting, heavy brush, or is too large to be searched visually.

Criminal Apprehension: Criminal apprehension is used when an individual that is involved in committing a serious criminal act and is in process of actively resisting arrest; poses a threat to police officers or other persons if not immediately stopped, and cannot be stopped by any other lesser means. When a police dog is deployed for fleeing suspect, the dog is sent to bite and hold the individual until such time as they can be taken into custody. Our dogs are very fast.

Open Area Searches: Santa Cruz County, with its wide variation of vegetation, desert, and mountainous regions, provides suspects with many hiding places. Often these suspects can be armed and pose a danger to the officers who are required to arrest them. A properly trained dog can be used in these situations to locate the suspect while minimizing danger to the officers. The dog, with his superior senses of smell and hearing, can conduct a more thorough search in less time than even a large number of officers.

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