Contact: Allison Matthews
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Two new members of Mississippi State University's police department are providing skills and capabilities unlike those of any other on the force.
Vance Rice, university police chief, said the department attained two police dogs this semester, and they have begun extensive training along with their police officer handlers. The German shepherd and Belgian Malinois male dogs quickly have adapted to regular policing duties.
Officers Patrick Jenkins and Kyle Kelly both volunteered to work as part of the K-9 units when the departmental opportunity arose.
"Anybody in the department was able to apply, and we had a few officers who were very interested," Rice said.
Many police forces add K-9 units because of the unique skills that expand the capabilities of traditional officers. Named "Drive" and "Miguel," the dogs can conduct searches, track people or items, and detect bombs. They aid the department in regular sweeps of campus athletic facilities and other locations as needed.
"When you have a lot of people in one place, anything we can do proactively to prevent crime of any sort is a step we want to take. Having the dogs in the department allows us to utilize their tracking and searching capabilities at any given time," said Rice, who is in his first year as chief of the nationally-accredited department after spending nearly 25 years in law enforcement at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Previously, MSU made use of dogs affiliated with the Mississippi Highway Patrol or other law enforcement agencies.
Now that MSU has the K-9s on hand, the police department will make the dogs available to local schools and neighboring jurisdictions when they're in need of help.
"We'll also send the dogs to do demonstrations. They are ambassadors for the department and really for the university as a whole," Rice added.
Since they got their new police partners, Kelly and Jenkins report for duty as usual, but with their K-9 companions always accompanying them. The officers and dogs train together on an ongoing basis, so they are always prepared to serve at the highest level. Shifts are rotated, so at least one K-9 unit is available as much as possible.
"We are constantly checking something every day and every night," Kelly said.
Jenkins said while they have scheduled weekly training sessions, they practice daily to perfect obedience and commands. When it's time to go home after a shift, the dogs go home with their handlers, who in addition to treating them as a policing partner, treat them as pets.
Rice pointed out that in addition to their tracking and article search abilities, the dogs have additional responsibilities.
"These dogs have a second thing that they are trained to do, and that's handler protection," Rice said. While the dogs are selected, in part, for their friendly nature, Rice said they are trained to become aggressive on command and are prepared to protect police officers if needed.
As a reward for their hard work, the dogs are given the highest levels of care, Rice said.
Jenkins and Kelly are assigned specialized police vehicles designed with the dogs' safety, comfort, and practicality in mind.
The new K-9 officers are just under 2-years-old, and Rice said most police dogs have a career span of about seven years.
Mississippi's flagship research university is online at www.msstate.edu, facebook.com/msstate, instagram.com/msstate and twitter.com/msstate.