CLEARLAKE — There”s a new cop on the streets in Clearlake. The addition of Officer Dex, an energetic, 17-month-old Belgian Malinois, is the result of a lengthy fundraiser answering the community”s request for a canine unit within the Clearlake Police Department.
“He”s the community”s dog. The community raised the funds to purchase a dog, the training and the equipment for the car,” Chief Allan McClain. “Part of what we are trying to do is it helps build inroads in the community for PR aspects; it gets us into the schools; and do other things.”
Dex is partnered with Officer Michael Carpenter, who said they are inseparable, on and off the job.
“We”re inseparable. Even on the calls, if he can”t see me, he starts barking. He goes where I go. We”re never too far apart,” Officer Carpenter said. “He”s a push-button dog. He”s a happy-go-lucky kind of dog but when I give that command, he”s ready to go to work.”
Officer Carpenter and Dex recently endured a five-week training session in King City. Officer Carpenter said that Dex is a French ring-trained dog with his commands voiced in French. During the five-week training, the two learned how to conduct building searches together; they went through obedience training and did bite work and tracking exercises. “Everything was interesting,” Officer Carpenter said. “The hardest part was keeping up on case law and learning how to read your dog. Learning to read your dog is very important because changes in your dog”s behavior can alert you to what”s going on with a suspect.”
Officer Carpenter said that Dex”s presence offers safety advantages for officers as well as saves their time. He said because a dog”s sense of smell is much keener than that of a human, a dog can search a building, track a suspect, do article searches, etc. much easier and quicker than his human comrades. He said, for example, a residence search that once took about 45 minutes, would now take about 10 to fifteen minutes. Sending the dog in also enhances officers” safety, he said.
Officer Carpenter said getting a suspect to surrender is much easier with a canine present. “People are more afraid of getting bit by a dog than anything else,” he said. “Our first day was fun. He”s quite a dog. We went on a knife call where the suspect was being uncooperative. When we arrived the guy was being combative and after about the fourth time I advised him that the dog would bite him, he surrendered.”
Officer Carpenter said he foresees a decrease in violent crimes, less officer injuries and more time for officers to be on the streets. Chief McClain agrees. “Dex is going to help us reduce crime when we”re being cut in other areas due to budget issues because a dog is a great tool that can do things that officers can”t,” he said. “He”s been utilized several times already since he”s been here, where we had suspects who have given themselves up. When they were confronted by officers with TASERs and guns, at that point they were willing to fight but once Dex was on scene and they were threatened with release of the dog, they went ahead and gave themselves up without incident.”
Officer Carpenter said that he and Dex have not gone through drug detection training yet and fundraising will continue in order to accomplish that. He said at present, Dex is getting familiar with the community and further training is anticipated in the future.
“I see this program succeeding because the city wants it and the police officers want it,” Officer Carpenter said. “I see us getting a second dog within a year and having both dogs being dual purpose for use in apprehension and locating narcotics.”
To contribute to the Clearlake Police K-9 program, contact the department at 994-8201.
Contact South County reporter Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
