The North American Police Dog Association selected Crawfordsville as its headquarters for its annual, week-long certification seminar.
Officers and their K9 partners from across the Midwest converged on the city this week, beginning training sessions at locations around Crawfordsville as early as Monday.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Kevin Crull said the coronavirus (COVID-19) travel restrictions limited the number of officers at the event this year, but 30 or more still made the trip.
“It’s mostly just the state of Indiana, but we’ve drawn in from Illinois, Missouri and Kentucky ... they have certification standards that they have to meet in order to be certified through NAPWDA,” Crull said. “We have master trainers here to do that for us.”
Each discipline has different standards, Crull said, including drug location, tracking and control.
“There have to find the drugs without knowing where they are ... so they have to locate those as a team and tell us if there’s drugs in that car or not,” Crull said. “If they do that successfully, they get their certification in that. It could be narcotics in lockers or rooms or offices.”
A former manufacturing facility at 1201 Elmore St. served as the perfect training headquarters for the event.
“And we have other venues too — aggression at the shelter where there’s apprehension stuff, and tracking, so they have to track for so long and sit for so long ... I think it has to be a quarter-mile long,” Crull said. “Then there’s a reward at the end of it, usually a ball or a tug or a toy of some kind. And then if they find that successfully, again that’s a certification.”
Comprised of mostly German shepherds, other breeds present included Dutch shepherds, Belgian Malinois and more.
Crull is on the host committee for the event, which included K9 officers and their handlers from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office as well.
Hosting the event was a special treat for the committee, he said.
“It kind of moves around through different cities ... we decided we wanted to try it,” Crull said. “So far, it’s been pretty successful.”
Local Patrolman Michael Plant said the event is a great learning opportunity for both the K9 officers and their handlers.
“Can’t say enough good things about what they (K9s) can do for us,” he said. “Is there any chance you would’ve found the things they found? Those are small quantities of things that are sealed in plastic and warpped in other material, and then there’s another barrier on top of that.
“They’re an excellent locating tool,” he continued. “If there searching for people, they give us a great leg up for that. And they’re a great de-escalation tool. We train a lot of aggression and things like that, but we also train control. That’s one of the big parts about NAPWDA and what we’re doing.”
Tracking, evidence recovery, criminal apprehension, vehicle searches and vehicle extractions are also vital services that can only be achieved through the use of police working dogs.
“There’s so many different uses ... they prevent us from getting hurt, the public from getting hurt, and often times the suspect,” Plant said. “A lot of times you’re going to have a physical counter that might be avoided, because they don’t want to fight with the dog.”
Fort Wayne Police Department’s Scott Wilson and his K9 officer partner Draco made the trip over the weekend and stayed in town for the week.
He said certification programs like the one in Crawfordsville this year are vital to many aspects of his job.
“It’s great training and a great experience,” Wilson said. “You get to learn the dog a little bit better and work out the little quirks they may or may not have. We’ve spent a lot of time together.”
Many K9 handlers are responsible for around-the-clock care of their dog partners, and many become members of the family.
“We’ve spent a lot of time together,” Wilson said.
For more information on NAPWDA and its services, visit www.napwda.com.
