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. 79