BY PEPPER FISHER

Port Angeles – Thanks to a $100,000 donation from a Joyce family, the police K-9 program in Port Angeles about to expand into three K-9 teams instead of two, and should be solvent for the next decade and beyond.

Police Chief Brian Smith joined KONP’s Todd Ortloff Show this week to talk about the benefits of having a strong K-9 program and where they are in the process of expansion.

You can’t talk about the history of the K-9 program here without Police Sgt. Kevin Miller. Miller and his K-9 Bodie are about to retire, but the program goes all the way back to 1989 and Miller’s first K-9 Arco. Miller has run the training program ever since, but with his retirement coming up, Officer Whitney Fairbanks, with her dog Copper, will take over the program.

Chief Smith says one of the great values of having a K-9 officer is what he calls the “force multiplier effect”, which was demonstrated just this week.

“So, the other night in Sequim we had a barricaded suspect, a SWAT crisis force team were called out. Well, Officer Fairbanks and K-9 Copper were also called out. So, a situation where a person is initially non-compliant. The visible show of force, which included the K-9 team, is often a factor in simply gaining compliance. You know, the officers say something like, “Okay, we’re here. We don’t want to send the dog in if we don’t have to. Go ahead and come out and surrender to us.” Well, just that alone often will resolve the situation.”

Smith also talked about the extraordinary abilities the K-9s bring to tracking a suspect.

“When the dog is deployed, using its nose to track, like to pick up the skin that you deposit that’s floating through the air, that’s unique to you, especially when you’re under stress and you’re producing adrenaline. Kevin would explain it that, when you make stew, you know, you put a lot of ingredients in there. And then, when we sit around, we can smell the stew itself. The dog will smell each ingredient in the stew, even though they’ve been mixed together. The dog still can pick them all out, smell them. That capability, when we’re tracking somebody, doesn’t have any peer.”

Two new K-9 teams are deep into their 400-hours of training. Officer Lilliana Emery and her K-9 Solo, and Officer Ken McKnight and Fozzie are expected to report for duty in late May or early June, giving Port Angeles, when combined with Officer Fairbanks and Copper, potentially round-the-clock K-9 team protection.

PAPD photo: The daughter of the benefactor (center), presents a check to Port Angeles Mayor Kate Dexter (left), joined by Officer Lilliana Emery and her K-9 Solo.