by Julie Wenger Watson | Photos courtesy of the Tulsa Police Department
When he joined the Tulsa Police Department, Chris Butterfield
didn’t know he would want to work with the K9 Corps.
“I didn’t become a police officer to be in the K9 Corps. I just wanted to be a police officer,” recalls Butterfield, now a sergeant with the TPD. “After spending some time in that department, I realized that’s what I wanted to do. It looked like a really rewarding, fun job.”
For Butterfield, who has served as a canine handler and is now a supervisor in the K9 Corps, it has been a great career too. “I’ve been lucky enough to do different things in the police department. I’ve worked in narcotics units. I’ve worked in the street-crimes unit,” says Butterfield. “For me, there was nothing even close to being as rewarding as the K9 work.”
Joining the K9 Corps is more than a matter of desire. With only 11 canine handlers, the process is competitive. After graduating from the Tulsa Police Academy, every officer goes through field training before working as a patrol officer for three years. After that, there must be a vacancy in the K9 Corps before someone can apply. Applicants are required to undergo a physical-fitness test and an interview. “It’s tough,” says Butterfield. “With only 11 handlers, there’s not a lot of turnover. We don’t have a lot of vacancies, and typically, we get several applications for one spot. Once you get a dog, it’s guaranteed that you get to stay in the unit as long as you’re working and performing. I was lucky. My first dog worked nine years. It’s very competitive.”
Not Your Average Canines
Not only are the dogs an integral part of TPD, they are also a great asset in public relations.
“With the public, they probably rank higher than we do,” says Butterfield. “People have a soft spot for dogs.”
Because of the important role canines play in policing, assault and battery on a police dog is a felony crime, just as it is on a human officer. It’s no surprise that the dogs ultimately chosen to work in the K9 Corps are not your average pups. When it’s time to recruit a new four-legged officer, a group of TPD trainers travels to a vendor in Pennsylvania to make the selection. They test several of the dogs before making their decision. The dogs are all from Europe, where they have been bred for military police work. They are all male (females are reserved for breeding), and they are either Belgian Malinois or German Shepherds or a mix of the two.
When choosing a dog, Butterfield says, trainers look for things such as how well the dogs use their noses and how well they do at “high ball drive.” Balls are used as a reward for training.
“We’ll throw a ball out in the middle of a field full of high weeds and watch how long they’ll search for it using their noses. We don’t like dogs to use their eyes much because that defeats the whole purpose,” Butterfield says. “The nose is the locating tool.”
Trainers also test the dogs for courage. “If they cower in any way with anything we’re doing, we can’t have that because our dogs are used for apprehension,” he notes.
Continuing Education
The dogs and their handlers go through a 12-week training program before going into the field. It includes basic obedience all the way up to narcotics detection. Training continues throughout the dog’s working career, with 16 hours a month of group sessions when they work on everything from searching buildings to tracking. In addition, 15 minutes of each shift are devoted to basic obedience practice. “The dogs are going to test you. They end up trying to train you if you’re not showing that you’re in charge all the time.
It’s a tricky balance,” says Butterfield. “It’s a lot of responsibility, and we take it very seriously.”
For the human officers, their canine partners provide an extra level of safety. “Safety is a huge, huge part of it. The only time we’re allowed by policy to deploy our dogs is on a felony crime — burglary, robbery, murder. The dogs will locate a person where you can’t see him. It could be behind a closed door or wherever,” says Butterfield. “I’ve found guys on a track that I didn’t even see until my dog had, so it’s much safer. Countless times, we’ve found people we never would have found without the dogs. They’re invaluable.”
Adapting and Retiring
The dogs live with their handlers throughout their working lives, which typically last seven to nine years. When the dogs retire, the handlers can choose to keep them. “Every dog is different, like every person is different, but typically, they retire fairly well,” says Butterfield. “If you’re lucky, they’re 10 or older by the time they retire. That’s pretty old, and they’re kind of ready to slow down a little bit.”
On occasion, a handler might move to a new job position or retire before the dog does. Although Butterfield notes that the bonds between handlers and their dogs are strong, the dogs seem to make the transition to new handlers with little problem. “It’s been my experience that a good dog will work for anybody. They just want to work,” he says. “I’d say it’s much harder for the human, but again, I’m the human, so I know how that feels. As long as the handlers the dogs go to are capable persons, the dogs will be just fine because they’re doing what they love to do, and that’s work.”
