Mayor mulls drug dog for city's police

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The Daily Item

By Amanda Keister

SUNBURY — As the city police department pushes for a drug dog of its own, three other Northumberland County K-9 handlers are training their dogs for service in the coming months.

Sunbury residents crowded City Council chambers Aug. 14 to demand the council make a decision regarding the department's K-9 program, which has been on hiatus for five years.

Since that meeting, Mayor Jesse C. Woodring said he has been made aware of the future availability of several other tracking and narcotics dogs in Sunbury, Northumberland and Point Township — information he said could affect his decision regarding Sunbury's K-9 program.

"Does that mean we shouldn't have one? No," the mayor said Friday.

Northumberland County has gone without a narcotics dog since the retirement of Chewbaka in 2003. Known as Chewy, the dog was the Northumberland Police Department K-9 and the multipurpose dog of the Northumberland-Montour Drug Task Force.

Chewy, who died in April 2005, was owned by Northumberland police Sgt. Clifford Kriner.

Mr. Kriner now owns Kaiser, a 2-year-old Rottweiler. Already trained in obedience at Jordan's K-9 Academy, Middleburg, Kaiser has begun training in narcotics detection.

In addition, four other dogs are being trained in Northumberland County.

Clover is being trained by Point Township police Sgt. Seth Cotner for narcotics and police work. And, Casie, owned by Wade Lytle, of the Northumberland County Emergency Management Agency, also is being trained for narcotics detection.

Casie is Mr. Lytle's third trained dog. Two others are trained for tracking and have been used by Sunbury police on multiple crime scenes.

Perhaps Sunbury should be using Mr. Lytle's dogs, the mayor said.

"I think we probably should have a dog, but maybe we have a dog (with) Wade Lytle," he said. "Shouldn't we be doing this in cooperation with Point Township and Northumberland? I mean, they're only a couple miles away."

Sgt. Joseph Jones, acting police chief, said the availability of nearby dogs has nothing to do with the Sunbury Police Department's need for one.

"We would probably be able to utilize their services if available," he said. "... Never is it good in law enforcement to rely on other department's assets to benefit you."

Aside from the availability of these dogs, Mayor Woodring said he has other questions about the K-9 program, as well as some apprehension.

His review of the city's prior K-9 program brought to his attention three lawsuits that were filed as a result of biting incidents, one involving a child. Additionally, in the past, when multiple officers have shown interest in handling a dog, a testing procedure was used to determine the most appropriate officer for the K-9 position.

"Should we not have some sort of a process to make sure the handler is going to be copacetic with the dog ... and fully understand their responsibilities?" Mr. Woodring asked.

Currently, only officer Scott Hause is on tap to handle the dog. Further, Mr. Hause does not live in Sunbury, another factor that concerns the mayor.

Finances are another stumbling block, Mr. Woodring said. Although commitments are in hand from the Sunbury Animal Hospital to provide lifelong veterinary care and from Weis Markets and Purina to donate a lifelong supply of food, the mayor remains concerned about the cost not only of training, but also for overtime, which Mr. Jones said has not yet been accounted for.

"I don't think it's going to be a significant amount of money, but it's one that needs to be addressed," Mr. Jones said.

K-9 officers, Mr. Kriner said, are the key when it comes to aggressive drug interdiction. Northumberland County District Attorney Anthony Rosini agreed.

"When you have large scenes to do ... like a high school sweep or ... a large parking lot or any area where you have multiple targets to hit, one dog cannot work for an extended period of time. They get tired like humans do," Mr. Rosini said. "It would be nice to have at least three or four available in the county so that we would have them when we need them."

He added that the dogs are valuable in countless other situations police officers face on a daily basis.

"They're a great asset to the officers," he said. "Just having the dog at the scene keeps behavior of people who are in custody in control. Just having a dog sitting there is enough to intimidate an individual ... that they will comply with the officer's (request)."