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The current Officer in Charge of the K-9 unit is Sgt. Wesley T. Partin, III. Sgt Partin has been with the Richmond Police Department for approximatley 13 years. He has served in the Patrol Operations Division through out the city and spent time in the Youth Violence Interdiction Unit. In the mid 1990's, before being promoted to sergeant, Sgt. Partin was assigned to the Richmond Police K9 Unit where he worked as a Narcotics Detector handler along side with K9"Speedy", a Belgium Malinoise. Upon Sgt. Partins promotion K9 "SPEEDY was retired and still lives with sergeant and his family at his home. During his time as sergeant, he has spent his time in Patrol Operations at 4th Precicnt before being re-assigned back to the K9 Unit as the Officer-in-Charge.
The K-9 Unit today still performs the same duties that it's predecessors performed over 40 years ago. The Unit today has 11 k-9 teams. The dog's are still in demand and are a valuable asset to the Police Department and in some ways, more than ever. The criminal element today has gone to great lengths to try and fool law enforcement officers. With the dogs keen sense of smell, it is very difficult to hide anything from them.
The K-9 Unit has uses several different breeds of dogs to perform certain tasks required of them. The unit currently has eight Patrol dogs. These dogs are used to conduct building searches, where upon the criminal has broken into someone's business or residence to steal anything of value. The Patrol K9 or other times referred to as the "Utility Dog", also conducts area searches, where a criminal will attempt to elude the police from capture.
Drug smugglers have been caught when the Narcotic Detector K-9 has put its nose to use and found illegal drugs hidden in cars, luggage and hidden compartments placed in every kind of place imaginable. The departments K-9 Unit currently has three narcotics detector canines, two of which are Positive Alert dogs and One Passive Alert Dog. Both perform the same functions but the passive dogs sits when it is exposed to the odor of the illegal narcotics where as the Positive Alerts Dogs, scratch's at the source where the drugs are hidden.
Terrorism has found it's way into our society through the use of explosive devices and weapons of mass destruction, the criminal element has taken another approach to intimidating the citizens in our communities. The Richmond Police Department has met that challenge with the use of our Explosive/Weapons Detector K-9. The Explosive/Detector K-9 has been trained to sniff out several different types of explosive materials and also to locate weapons that have been discarded during the use of a crime. The explosive/weapons canine also performs and extra duty as a Utility canine, searching buildings for criminals who have broken into them for the need to steal something of value.
All of the training is conducted either on site, at the training facility, or in and about the City of Richmond. Upon completion of the 12 to 14 week training school, each K9 and handler must undergo a certain amount of re-training each month and also be recertified each year in the discipline they were trained in. All of the certification's are conducted according to the type of training they recieved. The Utility Dogs, including the Explosive Detection K9, are certified under the Virginia Police Work Dog Association Certification Standrads and the Narcotic Detector K9's and handlers are certified according to the U. S. Customs Certification Standrads and the Virginia Police Work Dog Association Certification Standrads.
The K-9 Unit acquires it's k-9 candidates through either purchase or donations. Each candidate is tested for the required temperament and drives that would be useful in police work. Once the k-9 has been selected the departments K-9's teams undergo a 12 week school to teach them all of the duties expected of them during their life in police work. Each Police Officer and their K-9 companion under go countless hours of re-training once they graduate from the school and are certified to work on the street. Each k-9 teams under go an annual re-certification test to evaluate the performance of each team. When the K-9 reaches the time of retirement, each officer is afforded the opportunity to keep his/her k-9 companion of whom the dog will spend the remaining years with their handler.
The average life time of working experience that each k9 is capable of, will soley depend on the dog's physical ability and health. For the most part each dog can almost be expected work for about 7 to 9 years. There are alot of physical demands placed on the dog's as well as the handler's. It helps to have both the handler and k9 in good physical condition. Once the k9 reaches it's time of retirement the handlers are given the opportunity to keep their k9 partner, of which most do, or a good and suitable home is found for each.
The K-9's are an invaluable tool for Law Enforcement. They work cheap and are dedicated to the job set before them. There can be no denying that they never question what their handlers ask of them. They risk their lives protecting their human counterpart and strive to undergo any and all tasks put before them. We can only praise the dedication to service that they perform during their lives as Richmond Police K-9's.
The Richmond Police K9 Unit is a Nationally Accredited training facility, which was certified through the NORTH AMERICAN POLICE WORK DOG ASSOCIATION and has trained several k9 handlers from other departments around the Richmond Metro Area. All officers within the unit are members of the VIRGINIA POLICE WORK DOG ASSOCIATION. All of the certifications are done to meet the certification standrads set-forth by the V.P.W.D.A..
K9 TRAINING AREA"
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