DP News

February 28, 2010

‘Aron’ is newest member of police force

By Sarah Hite shite@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Sarah Hite on Facebook   |   https://twitter.com/#!/@TLSarahHite on Twitter

The newest member of the Dallas Township Police Department is a little different than his fellow officers.

Aron comes from Slovakia and, although he understands some English commands, German is his first language. He has specialized training in narcotics and can detect drugs in a way that no other officer in the department can.

Aron’s extraordinary sense of smell surpasses that of any human’s.

Officer Brian Feeney and Chief of Police Robert Jolley introduced Aron, the department’s new K-9 dog, at the Dec. 15, 2009 supervisors meeting. The 2-year-old black German Shepherd was certified as a K-9 dog on Jan. 25 after undergoing training since early October.

“It’s a great asset to the community,” Jolley said of Aron’s involvement with the police department.

Feeney has been a police officer with Dallas Township for 19 years. He has had pet dogs his entire life and volunteered to be the K-9 officer when the opportunity arose.

“It was an interest I’ve always had for years and we had the opportunity when Macko was purchased with a grant,” Feeney said of his former partner.

The Dallas Township Police Department purchased its first K-9 dog, Macko, in 2005 with a grant from the U.S. Office of Homeland Security. Macko was diagnosed with lymphoma at age 4 last year and was put down in September.

“The people know that the other one was gone and we didn’t have it for a while,” Feeney said of the dogs. “It deters crime as far as I have seen it the past four years.”

Aron was born at an unknown dog breeding facility in Slovakia. The township purchased him from Ideal Police Canine of Muncy, Pa. on Oct. 1, 2009. The dog cost $11,000 which included his training.

Roger Stipcak, who owns Ideal Police Canine, is Aron’s trainer. Both Feeney and Aron visit Stipcak twice a month to further their training in addition to the ongoing training they do on their own.

The new dog is trained in general patrol and narcotics detection and has his own bulletproof vest. Macko was also trained in general patrol but his specialization was in explosives detection.

Jolley said the department chose to train its new dog in drug detection because there are now more dogs with explosives training. Also, drug arrests are increasing and the township is seeing larger quantities of drugs, he said.

Although Macko had no training in drugs, Jolley said Macko contributed to four drug arrests simply because the perpetrators voluntarily gave up their drugs when they saw the dog.

Feeney said Aron completed four weeks of drug detection training. The training started by introducing various drug odors one at a time on a scented towel. The trainer and Aron would play fetch with the towel.

The trainer would then hide the towel so Aron would have to use his nose to find it. The dog performaned close to 600 repetitions with the towel and, eventually, the trainer hid drugs that Aron had to find.

When he is off duty, Aron lives with Feeney and his family where he gets to “just be a dog” and plays with Feeney’s three other dogs.

“They know the difference between when they’re at work and when they’re at home,” Feeney said of the K-9 dogs.

According to Feeney, it’s important never to approach a police dog without permission.

“They’re not a pet and people get upset because they’re not allowed to pet him,” Feeney said. “He’s very protective and, if you just walk up to him, that’s a good way you’ll get bit out of the blue.”

Jolley said the department is willing to share some of its K-9 resources, such as its bite suit, to other departments interested in developing a K-9 unit.

“I’d like to see one of our neighbors get one,” Jolley said. “No one else in the Back Mountain has a K-9 unit.”

Tweet	Follow @TLnews