WORCESTER, Mass. - As COVID-19 restrictions allow more people into large events in Worcester County, police departments look to acquire more K-9s.
The Worcester Police Department currently has six dogs working the streets, but Officer Daniel Pennellatore, head trainer with the Worcester Police K-9 Unit, says the aim is to have at least seven. Out of the six K-9s, only two are Explosive Ordnance Detection (EOD) dogs.
“There’s a big need in the city right now for explosion detection dogs with the growth in the city, stadium and all the major events that the city is starting to bring into the city,” Pennellatore said. “We have a huge need for the explosives dogs. They’ll go out and they’ll do sweeps for explosives before major events. They’ll be on scene to deter people.”
With more events occurring in Worcester, Pennellatore says the dogs provide people with a sense of safety and furthers the reason why a third or fourth EOD dog is necessary.
“It’s a huge sense of security for people who go to these events when they see the EOD dogs sitting outside,” Pennellatore said. “It just kind of takes a little weight off of people’s shoulders, especially with things that we’ve had happen across the country.”
According to Pennellatore, the total cost of training costs the police department about $2,000 per dog. After, an additional $7,500 to $9,000 is spent on each dog.
Many police departments receive their K-9s from out of the country, but not all of the dogs end up staying.
“Most of the dogs are imported from Europe, so vendors around New England will import the dogs into the United States, then we'll go out and test the dogs for the attributes that we’re looking for in the dogs,” Pennellatore said.
Some dogs don’t make it to specific police department K-9 units but make a better fit into another.
“Sometimes dogs don’t work out for us, but they work for other agencies,” Pennellatore said. “It depends on what we’re looking for. Here in the city, we’re working in a million different environments so we need a dog that is really environmentally sound. You may have a smaller agency that is really only working outside in grass and woods.”
In the past, Sen. Michael Moore (D-2nd Worcester) has helped get money from the state to provide WPD with the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Detection) canines, according to Pennellatore.
Pennellatore says the K-9s train at the Boston Police K-9 Academy for 14 weeks. After the initial training is complete, the dogs can complete an additional six weeks of training for narcotics and 10 weeks for explosives, for. This equates to be about 20 to 24 weeks in total of training.
While there is a minimum set of hours needed to be completed each month for training, Worcester makes sure more hours are dedicated to training the K-9s.
“We’re required to do 16 hours a month,” Pennellatore said. “Here in Worcester, we do 20 hours a month. The minimum national standard is 16, we try to kind of go above and beyond the national standard and do 24 hours of training a month.”
Before police departments begin training, certain traits are considered for the dogs. Pennellatore says the ability to hunt is one of the strongest traits for K-9s.
“The big things we are looking for, the biggest is hunt,” Pennellatore said. “The primary purpose of the dog is a locating tool. Everybody thinks of the dogs of biting people. That’s not the primary purpose of the dog.”
The K-9s receive training to find guns, narcotics, a missing child or a suspect that has taken off. While locating is the main purpose for the dogs, there are additional attributes that the trainers look for.
“Obviously we have to have a confident dog,” Pennellatore said. “They’re the ones out in front of us kind of leading the way. They’re the first ones through the doors in high-risk situations and violent suspects, they’re the first ones in. So, we need a dog that is confident enough to take it upon himself to go through that door first.”
A confidence course is required for all the dogs before they can complete the training.
“Through the K-9 academy, we have a confidence course that we’ll run the dogs through,” Pennellatore said. “It has a lot of different environments. They have to go through tunnels, under things, through things, over things, climb fire escapes. That’s kind of what we test the dog’s confidence and help build their confidence. It is imperative that they have that because they are the first ones going through the door on any given situation.”
A few police departments in Worcester County including Shrewsbury, Charlton and Brookfield, as well as Chicopee and the Hampden County Sheriff's Department, are competing in a social media contest to earn a grant from the company Aftermath to improve their own K-9 departments.
People can vote once a day until Tuesday, Oct. 26. The winners will be announced on Thursday, Oct. 28.