I ERASED THIS POST. It was copied from another web site and I am sure it was copyrighted. Board members get one warning on posting copyrighted material.

It is OK to post a link to an article - but it is against the law to post the article.

Here's a LINK to the Chicago Sun Times about an interesting article regarding contract detector dogs:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-bomb27.html

With the money to made, there are certainly those vendors out there that think they will never be tested, so why worry about it. Kind of brings to mind the ordeal with Ebersole doesn't it. What's needed, of course, is a standardized certification. The problem is obtaining a consensus among those users of what standard is to be used. That still doesn't account for the private companies and vendors that provide detection services. There are 5 federal agencies that can not agree on a single certification standard. Getting 50 states, numerous county and city programs to agree to a single program would be just as difficult. Arguably, TSA has the best, and in my opinion, most difficult certification standard. There are some organizations that exist to set and conduct certification exercises, while that is certainly a start, non are mandatory. If memory serves me correctly there are only 2 states that require a state certification. As always the devil is in the detail. While the vendor in your article is certainly liable for his actions, the hiring authority should share that liability for not properly testing those dogs, the same as the Federal Gov't should be partly responsible for the actions of Ebersole. Well not the actions, but certainly allowing his dogs to work without better oversight. It's not like the federal government didn't have the professionals to conduct those evals.


DFrost

This is reporting at it`s worst.
The only paragraph of this whole article worth anything is "But Tony Majka, regional president for Securitas, said the videotaped dogs and handlers were doing exactly what they were instructed to do. At the start of their shift, the handlers were told to conduct perimeter searches of Metra stations, Majka said. Then they would wait for orders from Metra police to search suspicious packages for explosives, Majka said. The dogs don't actively sniff for explosives unless a handler commands them, he said"

Three Points
1. This reporter has published two articles in the past year criticizing MERTA employed K9s. In his first article he land blasts the security for shutting down the subway during a non-productive response. If both articles are read with even the most elementary abject reasoning, the grudge being carried by this reporter becomes glaringly obvious. Refer to the Chicago-Sun Website for the previous article.

2. Any dog handler who has actually worked a dog, I stress the word worked, knows that an active subway platform is not the most productive area for a conventional EDD. Employment of a conventional EDD Team in that environment consists of two tasks:

a. active sweeps of luggage, trash cans, and articles laying on the platform

b. awaiting search opportunities while acting as visible deterrent

3. Conventional EDD Teams are ineffective at interdicting explosive packages carried past them. An EDD Team serving in a personnel screening role must be specially trained for such a task. All you dog handlers who don’t believe me, try it. Set up the following double blind test. Place five volunteers each wearing jackets in a large garage or warehouse. Ensure that neither the volunteers nor the handler know which is carrying the plant. This can be ensured by placing objects of various sizes and weight inside the jackets of all volunteers. The volunteers should be asked to circulate freely about the area and that each should pass within five feet of the dog at least twice. The handler is to remain entirely passive during this test. Conduct the test repeatedly with different target loads. For accurate assessment it would be best to use multiple dogs preferably of different training and working backgrounds.

Let me know how your test turns out. Here’s a hint its not going to look pretty.