AST Digital Magazine October 2017 Digital-Oct | Page 79
Volume 17
Alberta has attracted officers and animals from
police forces across the continent eager to see
the centre’s pioneering work tackling the scourge
of fentanyl.
“No agency in the world was conducting fentanyl
detection for police dog service,” explained Staff
Sgt. Eric Stebenne, senior trainer at the RCMP
police dog service training centre in Innisfail, Alta.
“We really got interested in finding a safe way to
introduce fentanyl detection as part of our pro-
gram.”
Close to three dozen people from Canadian, U.S.
and Mexican law enforcement agencies, some
bringing their own dogs, completed the first two-
day workshop to learn RCMP methods for train-
ing dogs to search for fentanyl.
(The RCMP are deploying more dogs to help get fentanyl off
the streets. Courtesy of 660 News and YouTube. Posted on
Aug 22, 2017)
October 2017 Edition
RCMP needed to create a diluted, liquid form so
the dogs could safely learn the scent without the
risk of inhaling airborne particles.
The training program is so new, Stebenne said
the pilot program that trained the first three dogs
only happened last year.
But he said it saw success quickly, with one of
the dogs intercepting 12,000 fentanyl pills in Brit-
ish Columbia.
In February, the RCMP announced it would train
all 139 RCMP narcotics dog teams across Can-
ada to detect fentanyl and word of their work
spread.
(RCMP specialists make a diluted liquid-based form of the
drug that the dogs can smell, and learn to recognize, without
any risk of them ingesting it. You can see the dog sit to alert
the officers to the presence of fentanyl. Courtesy of the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police and YouTube)
“It is particularly efficient, making the dogs in the
field extremely productive,” explains Stebenne.
RCMP wearing personal protective equipment handle fen-
tanyl
Since fentanyl can be deadly if inhaled, the
RCMP dogs from across the country are getting new
training to detect fentanyl at a centre in Innisfail, and
it’s already helping put the bite on opioid suppliers,
the force says.
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