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On a warm Las Vegas night a muscular German Shepherd searched through a
series of dark offices. His deputy sheriff handler followed cautiously
behind. At the end of the hallway the deputy saw a large door. He
whistled, pointed his flashlight at the wall on the hinge side of the door
and said, “Station.” The dog immediately obeyed by going to the spot of
light and lying down. The dog's eyes were riveted on the handler as he
slid toward the doorknob. The handler slowly opened the door and peeked
inside. He saw a cavernous one-room warehouse, 100' by 150', with 25' high
ceilings, and a 15' wide by 12' high mezzanine running along three walls.
“Dang It !' said the deputy, 'Now I gotta deal with
high ground and a big
freakin' open space. Oh, well, here goes. Okay, Thor, Find'em!”
The dog entered the warehouse and immediately began a swing to his right
along the wall. About halfway down the wall his head lifted, as if his
nose was pulled by some puppeteer's string. His head swiveled from side to
side. He stopped panting as he closed his mouth to take in more air
through his nose. His pace accelerated as he danced back and forth moving
gradually northward and then eastward toward the corner of the building
nearest the mezzanine stairs. The dog ran 30' each way along the north and
east walls in a vain attempt to find a way up to the mezzanine. He then
concentrated his efforts high in the northeast corner of the building. The
dog jumped and climbed in the corner before dropping back to the ground to
give the steady, intense bark his handler had come to know as his “alert.”
“What's your dog telling you?” the back up asked.
The K-9 deputy pointed to the northeast corner of the
upper mezzanine and
replied with assurance, “Our bad guy's up there.” By this time the handler
had moved into the room with his back-up. They had taken a position along
the east wall, about halfway between the entry door and the mezzanine
stairs. The K-9 deputy felt sure the embossing machine between him and the
stairs would provide adequate cover if the dog flushed the suspect from
the area of the alert.
The back-up deputy said, “Look, man, I don't want to
stick my head up
there. Why don't you try to bluff him out?”
“Sounds good to me” came the reply.
Both deputies hunkered down behind the embossing
machine to make smaller
targets for whomever the dog had found up there. With pistols drawn, each
covered 45 degrees to either side of the corner, preparing for any
movement that might come their way.
“You! Up there in the corner! Come out now and give
yourself up! If you do
not come out, I will send up the dog to bring you out.”
“Don't shoot! Don't send the dog! I give up! I give
up!” came the voice
from behind them. The K-9 deputy got that punched-in-the-gut feeling that
comes with a sudden rush of fear. As he wheeled to face the voice he saw
the man stand up in southwest corner of the mezzanine.
“Dang! ... 'said the K9 Deputy,'.. . I'm sure glad this
was just training.
Otherwise I'd have been toast.”
At that point I slipped out of my role as back-up
deputy talked with the
handler as his trainer. “Okay, what just happened here?”
“I just about got killed. That's what. Man, Thor has
never been that wrong
before. At K9 school they always tell you, 'Trust your dog.' How the heck
can I trust him when indicates 180 degrees and 50 yards the wrong way?”
“Hhhhhhmmmm? Why did this happen?” I asked.
“My danged dog didn't do his job. That's why. I trusted
him and wound up
with my back to the threat.”
“Let's ask a few questions to see if we can figure out
what really
happened here. You say Thor didn't do his job. What exactly is his job in
a building search?”
''He's supposed to find the bad guy.
“Okay. What's your job in a building search?”
“Well, duh. My job is to find the bad guy too.”
“Consider this. If two members of a team have different skills, doesn't it
make sense to have them each responsible for what they do best?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Okay. We agree that a division of labor makes sense.
What can your dog do
that you can't?”
“Smell.”
“Agreed. Specifically, his job is to find the strongest
concentration of
scent available to him. He's the detector.” What can you do that your dog
can't?”
“Think.., but, you couldn't prove it by the way I
handled that problem.
“You're closer than you think. Carry the rationale to
the next level.”
“I guess my job is to figure out how the scent gets
from source to where
Thor can detect it. I guess that makes me the analyzer. Together, our job
as a team is to find the bad guy. That's easy if the strongest
concentration he can find is at source—the bad guy. Otherwise, I have my
work cut out for me. Is that where you're going with this?”
“You bet. Now that you have the why of this exercise,
tell me about the
how.
“Wait a minute. I still not sure I get how this
happened? Are you trying
to tell me that Thor was right? He indicated on this corner as far away
from the bad guy in this room as he could possibly be.”
“Time to start doing your job as analyst. Look at my
compass for a hint.”
The compass pointed to the north wall, not far from where Thor had given
his alert. “Think about it. What could have happened outside this building
today to affect how scent flows inside it tonight?”
After a moment's thought the deputy replied, “Okay. I
think I'm starting
to get it now. That bad guy was in an area of warmer air, which carried
the scent along the ceiling until it dropped over here in the northeast
corner. But. . . why?”
He looked around the room and mumbled to himself as he
turned a slow
circle. The he pointed to the north, east, south and west walls. “Wait a
minute. I think I've got it. The bad guy was in the southwest corner. It
was hot because those south and west exterior walls had more stored heat
from sunlight than the north and east walls. I mean the last wall to get
direct sunlight is the west wall, and the south wall gets oblique sunlight
all day. The north wall gets no direct sun, and the east one has been
cooling since around noon. So, heat radiating through the walls warms the
air. It rises in the southwest corner and falls in the northeast corner,
carrying the bad guy's scent with it.”
“Excellent!” I said as I pulled out a puffer bottle
filled with talcum
powder and sprayed a column of talcum dust in the air. “Let's test your
theory. If what you say is correct, there should be a circular flow in
this building with air moving away from the cold, northeast corner at
ground level.”
“Sure enough. Look at that.” The deputy said as he
excitedly grabbed the
puffer bottle from my hand and climbed to the top of the rolling ladder
left in the middle of the room. “Check it out. The stuff is going from
southwest to northeast up here. Just like we figured.”
I hated to dampen his enthusiasm, but for
safety's sake I had to remind
the deputy of a few things. “Remember, there are all sorts of factors
which will change the air flow dynamic in a room. Can you think of a few?”
“Sure. Open doors and windows, time of day, ventilation
systems too. I
suppose the circular flow effect wouldn't be so pronounced in a room with
walls that were pretty much the same temperature. It might even reverse if
the outside temperature was colder than inside.”
“You're right. I suppose that's part of the reason the
effect becomes less
pronounced with time. I've run this scenario over the course of four
nights with a total of 42 dogs. By the time the quarry has been up there
three or four hours the dogs get their first whiffs of him closer than
Thor did. Just the same, all save two have been pulled away by their own
noses. This may be as much a factor of time related diffusion of the scent
plume as it is a weakening of the circular flow.”
“Good point. I've got to remember all this. I mean I
feel a lot better,
but how am I supposed to know if Thor's indication is where the bad guy is
if or it's where his scent is drifting?”
“Good question. You can't know for sure every time, so
you have use the
division of labor as the foundation of good officer safety. It's a three
step process which starts long before you ever do a real building search.
First, begin by training your back-up officers. Teach them they must
follow your directions precisely. They need enough faith in you to watch
your back at all times, even if you tell them the threat may be in the
opposite direction the dog is going. Next, prepare yourself before
starting any building search. Try to predict which way the air will flow.
Look for exterior and interior walls that differ significantly in
temperature. Check for fans, vents, and open windows. Bring a wrist
compass and a puffer bottle. Check door seams before you open the doors to
determine if they lead to inward or outward breathing rooms. Treat high
alerts with extra caution— especially if they come from cold walls since
there can be two danger zones with them. Finally, debrief every search. If
you will at least use them as opportunities to learn, there is no such
thing as a failed application or exercise.”
“Got it. Thor's got his job, I've got mine, and
back-ups have theirs” the
deputy said as we walked out of the building. “Thanks, man, that was an
eye opener.”
I thanked him kindly as he departed. I must admit
I felt a flush of
satisfaction as I heard him tell the next handler in line, “You're gonna
love this one, man.
Copyright 2004 Steve White
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