by Geoff Fox
Could the town of Hancock be getting its third police canine in the near future? If Officer Jesse Walls can convince town officials, that could happen.
During the November town meeting, Walls brought forth the idea after a meeting with someone in the Washington County Narcotics Task Force who is in charge of grants.
Walls said the person told him there was a possibility of grant money being available to assist in buying a dog.
“When I talked to Chief [Rich] Miller about doing it up here, he seemed to be in favor of it,” Walls said.
Walls said in this part of Washington County, there isn’t much reactive policing, which is responding to and answering a call and making an arrest or getting things off of it.
“We do a lot of proactive policing, such as traffic stops, looking for people with warrants, and stuff like that,” Walls said.
Hancock, he said, is isolated from the rest of the county and the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t respond to a lot of calls in this area.
If a K-9 is needed, Walls said, there are only two shifts with a dog in the Sheriff’s Office and they aren’t always working.
Because of this, it would be difficult to get a K-9 in Hancock in the time needed to do a normal traffic stop.
Under Walls’ proposal, town officials should look into getting a K-9 unit for the Hancock Police Department.
“Through my research, I think the best choice for us would be a Labrador retriever,” he said.
Walls said that breed would be only for drug detection and tracking.
The training would be in Boiling Springs, Pa., which would be an 80-mile drive,
saving the town money, as they wouldn’t need to pay for a hotel room.
This would be the same training location the Washington County Sheriff’s Office uses and has sent three deputies there within the past year, Walls said.
Walls also noted the dog would not be an attack dog and would be a friendly dog for the community.
He said if the dog would be at National Night Out, people could come up and pet it without the worry of the dog snapping and biting someone.
“It would be really good for the police department’s image in town,” Walls said.
The cost would be around $13,000 for the dog and training, but there could be grant money available to cover the costs.
Walls said the next available training session would be in May, and would take five and a half weeks to complete.
He also noted by the end of the five and a half weeks, there would be five total officers on the Hancock Police force after the newest officer completes the academy.
This would allow the town to have two officers scheduled when the dog is on duty, which is required by law.
“You cannot delay the traffic stop, so you would have to have somebody else with you,” Walls said. “We’ll have a complete police department where we don’t have to worry about working by ourselves or anything like that.”
Walls said the town does have a lot of drugs coming in from Berkeley Springs via U.S. 522 and also locations to the east and west via Interstates 68 and 70.
This is a tool police could use to start cracking down on those drugs, he added.
Walls added the K-9 would also work as a deterrent as there are people who know how long they can be held at a traffic stop and also hide anything they are carrying.
By having a K-9 minutes away, the ability to have the dog sniff any vehicle is readily available.
“With me living in town, I plan to stay here. I’d be willing to sign a contract for the duration of the dog’s life in town,” Walls said.
Walls said he would readily available, even off duty, should the need arise for the dog to do a search.
The tracking ability would also help in the searches for lost or missing people. Walls said he believes there is only one K-9 trained for tracking in Washington County.
Mayor Roland Lanehart, Jr. asked for an annual cost, which Walls said would be $15,000, which would be equipment. He also gave the estimated budget from when the town had K-9 Beno under former Chief Rick Cook.
Veterinarian costs would be around $300 yearly and the insurance would also be lower as well as the dog would not be an attack dog.
There is a food cost, but some of that could be donated.
The Sheriff’s Office recently retired a vehicle that had been used as a K-9 vehicle and Walls said the Sheriff’s Office might be able to donate the vehicle to the town for use of the K-9 unit here, should the town approve the purchase.
Walls said the owner of the training facility would allow officials from Hancock to tour the facility to show what he teaches.
Because a dog cannot be imprinted with marijuana in Maryland, the dog would not be trained to detect or alert on it. If the dog were to hit on marijuana, Walls said it would be because another drug is in with it.
The town has until February to sign up for this next round of K-9 training. Walls said the trainer could guarantee a lab, but not the color or gender of the dog.
Lanehart said the decision could be made at the December town meeting, which would give Walls time to sit down with the person handling the grant. It was also suggested Walls reach out to Greenwill Consulting about grant money.
“I think we’re all pretty much in favor of it, we would like to get a little funding for it,” Councilman Josh McCusker said.
Hancock has previously had K-9 officers with Beno and Cook and Rambo with former Chief T.J. Buskirk.
