SC State to add gun-sniffing dog to campus security force

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – South Carolina State University’s Campus Police force will soon have a new detective – a floppy-eared one.

The newest member of the force will be a dog trained to detect the presence of firearms on campus.

“This has been in the making almost nine months since I began evaluating several companies and first made contact with Global K9 Protection Group,” SC State President Alexander Conyers said. “We just want to ensure that the student, faculty and staff on this campus are just as protected as any other campus or any other state agency.

“Other universities in South Carolina and across the country already are using these capabilities,” he said. “We may be the first HBCU in the country to employ this technology, so we are on the forefront, but I feel sure we won’t be the last.”

A current member of the Campus Police force, Officer LaVar Johnson, will head to Global K9’s training facility in Alabama next week to begin a month of preparation to be the dog’s handler. Johnson will work with several dogs before being matched with the perfect fit for the SC State campus.

On Tuesday, K9 Global representatives brought Dakota, a black labrador retriever, to the SC campus to demonstrate the dog’s skills. Dakota easily detected dummy gun items placed inside a truck and on a fire hydrant several yards away. She’s trained to sit to alert her handler when she confirms a weapon is present.

Then, she picked Dr. Frederick Evans, SC State provost and vice president for academic affairs, out of a line of people walking on campus as he carried a hidden item.

The dogs are trained to detect vapors left by weapons, including the vapor wake left behind a moving person, just as a human might smell someone’s cologne.

SC State’s certified K-9 duo will be utilized in several ways – to detect firearms inside parked cars, to conduct random residence hall and academic building checks, to screen people attending campus events and in any other situation that could pose a security threat.

Conyers emphasized that SC State is a gun-free campus and that anyone found with a weapon will be arrested and prosecuted under state law.

But finding guns is only one part of SC State’s goals for the K9 unit,

“There so many benefits to this – finding the guns, the deterrent and the psychological benefit of letting our stakeholder know that we are doing the most we can,” Conyers said.

Keith Turner, a business development representative for Global K9, said the company has placed working dogs like Dakota in several school districts and universities, including the University of South Carolina, Auburn University and Notre Dame University.

Along with detecting guns and deterring people from bringing them at all, Turner said the company has learned that students have a stronger sense of security with the dog’s presence on campus.

“We’ve come to find that students feel more comfortable if they feel protected. You have protector and guardian all wrapped up into a package – in a K9,” Turner said. “Firearms are what we are hunting, yes, but students gravitate to something that makes them feel safer.”

That’s due in no small part to the dog breeds Global K9 trains and deploys. Rather than using traditional police dog breeds that may conjure up negative reactions, the company uses black and yellow labs, pointers and spaniels.

“There’s this thing with floppy-eared dogs – you’re not afraid of them. You want to think about how the students perceive an animal,” Daniel McAffee, director of training for Global K9. “You want to sooth them instead of scaring them. So, we are using a friendly-looking dog. People will trust these animals.”

The theory proved true on Tuesday, as students, faculty and staff members who witnessed the demonstration could not get enough of Dakota and her sweet disposition. They flocked around McAffee to pet her.

“My selection process is really scrutinous when it comes situations with people and with other animals. I make sure the dog is able to work in those environments,” McAffee said.

McAffee said over the next four weeks, Officer Johnson will receive classroom training about canine psychology and places and situations the dog will be used, followed by hands-on field experience with the dogs.

SC State’s president is quite familiar with specialized search dogs from his military career. One of Conyers’ many positions in the U.S. Army was the chief officer for military working dogs, which included coordinating the procurement, training, certification and deployment of such dogs.

This was at the height of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Conyers said, and the military needed dogs with a new capability – detecting improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Then, too, the breed made a difference.

“We needed non-aggressive dogs, because we were in a civilian populous in other countries,” Conyers said. This dog that we are brining on campus is very similar to those dogs.”

Once SC State’s K9 officer is identified, Conyers plans to develop a student contest to name the dog.

The dog is one of numerous safety and security measures SC State has implemented over the last two years. Other measures have included installing emergency call boxes and about 700 video cameras on campus, employing additional sworn officers, contracting more security personnel, and adding extra patrols on campus.