Drug Sniffing Dog

Approved For NHS

By John Voket

The Newtown Police Department’s K-9 unit will likely be called upon to perform random, routine drug sniffing assignments at Newtown High School this fall. Pending the approval of a policy on the initiative, the Board of Education approved a motion to permit school administrators to work with police and the department’s dog, Baro, on sweeps of lockers, storage and common areas of the facility, as well as in the high school’s parking lots.

With board members Tom Gissen and David Nanavaty opposing the measure, the proposal passed by a 4-2 vote after nearly three hours of public comment and deliberations on particulars of the motion and a district policy that will be based on a model provided to School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE).

Almost 70 residents, many of whom said they have, had, or will have children in the school system, as well as several who either lost loved ones to drug overdoses or have seen children close to them deeply affected by drugs, spoke during the public portion of the meeting, which was held at the Reed School Thursday evening, July 6.

In all, 19 residents spoke in favor of the proposal, and nobody in the audience spoke against the idea. First Selectman Herb Rosenthal, Police Chief Michael Kehoe, K-9 Officer Andrew Stinson and Parent Connection spokesperson Dorrie Carolan were among those who spoke during the meeting.

Provided the board is able to administer and approve a policy regarding the use of Baro in the school during its August meeting, the plan calls for the dog and handler to provide a complete sweep of the entire building before classes resume August 29. The sweep, which could take three to four days, is planned to locate and remove any drug residue that may be left from the previous school year.

That way, any sweep during which the dog responds to a locker would likely mean suspected drugs came onto the property subsequent to the beginning of the school year. Officer Stinson said Baro’s sense of smell is so good that he has detected residue from drugs that were present days before.

The K-9 handler said since Baro became active on the police force just over one year ago, he has aided in more than 100 arrests during which the dog detected drugs or drug paraphernalia, and that the dog has never acted on a false positive, indicating the presence of drugs or paraphernalia where there were none.

Since it is the board’s practice to allow any proposed policies to be vetted over the course of two meetings, the probability of getting a policy regarding the dog in place in time to do the late August sweep was initially in jeopardy because there is only one additional meeting planned before the start of school. But School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff produced copies of the CABE policy, which was considered during a brief recess and subsequently accepted as a first reading of a draft policy for Newtown.

This endorsement provided the required first of two policy readings, the second of which will occur during a scheduled August 15 meeting. Once the policy is presented at the second meeting August 15, the policy can then be voted upon by the board later during that same meeting.

Prior to August 15, Dr Pitkoff will have an opportunity to mark up the document to suit the Newtown district, and incorporate any adjustments to the draft that might be suggested by school district attorneys. The CABE draft provides for the board to seek “…the elimination of the possession or use of illegal substances/devices.

“The Board wants to convey a strong message to the community, faculty, staff, and student body concerning the use or possession of illegal substances,” the draft continues.

If adopted as written, the example policy would not restrict the use of drug sniffing dogs exclusively to Baro, or the Newtown Police Department. The draft suggests wording that would permit the school administration to invite “law enforcement agencies or other qualified agencies or individuals to search school property with dogs…when necessary to protect the health and safety of students, employees, property and to detect the presence of illegal substances or contraband…”

According to the CABE draft, the use of trained dogs would be subject to specific criteria including:

Having the school principal or his/her designee present while the search or sweep is taking place;

Notifying students’ parents and guardians of the dog use policy through inclusion of the policy in the student handbook;

All school property including lockers, classrooms, parking areas and storage areas may be searched;

Dogs shall not be used in rooms occupied by persons except for demonstrations with the handler present;

When performing demonstrations, the dog may not sniff persons or any individual;

Individuals shall not be subject to a search by dogs;

The draft goes on to clarify that once notification has been given to parents and students through inclusion in the handbook, the district will have met its obligation to advertise the searches. Additional notices need not be given, and actual times or dates of planned searches need not be released in advance.

Only the dog’s official handler will determine what constitutes an alert (or possible detection) by the dog. If the dog alerts on a particular item or place, the student having use of that item or place or responsibility for it shall be called to witness the search.

If the dog alerts to a locked vehicle, the student who brought that vehicle onto district property shall be asked to unlock it for inspection.

The CABE draft concludes that “law enforcement agencies will be given full authorization to investigate and prosecute any person or persons found to be responsible for illegal substances on school property.”