By Travis DeNeal 19

SIUC Police want to bring a K-9 program to campus to better serve the University by freeing up manpower during suspect searches.

If such a program is implemented, SIUC will be the first Illinois public university to have a K-9 unit as part of its police force.

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At Wednesday’s Undergraduate Student Government meeting, SIUC Police Cpl. Ken Sneed told the student body what improvements a dog would give to SIUC Police. The presentation included a guest appearance by one of Carbondale Police’s drug-sniffing pooches.

Sneed said he hoped USG would endorse the incorporation of a police dog into the squad.

Sneed is seeking donations, though not from USG, to pay for the startup cost of the program. The estimated cost is between $8,300 and $9,500. An additional $700 to $1,000 would be needed each year to pay for maintenance costs, such as dog food and retraining workshops.

Sneed has been trying to get a K-9 unit in place since 1990, but lack of funding always has been a problem.

James Tweedy, vice chancellor for Administration, said that while such a program would improve police service to the campus, the University never has had enough internal funding to pay for a police dog program.

From a safety standpoint, we could provide many more services to the school, he said, but we just don’t have the resources.

Sneed and Carbondale Police Officer Julie Phillips, who brought a German shepherd police dog named Vader to the presentation, explained benefits of a K-9 program.

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For instance, a police dog can be used to track suspects from a crime scene in cases of burglary or sexual assaults. The dog also can be used to track missing people.

Phillips cited cases where she used Vader to find evidence after a sexual assault and where the dog located suspects after a business robbery.

They were outside a shopping center area, hiding in neck-deep weeds, she said. We would not have found them otherwise.

Sneed said that if police were searching for a suspect in a building, a dog handler and dog could clear a large building in about 15 minutes. It might take 45 minutes, Sneed said, for a team of four officers to clear the building.

Sneed said a K-9 program likely would be considered successful if implemented. He bases his prediction in part on the success of Michigan State University’s police dog program, which began in 1983.

At MSU, the first campus police dog did so well that the campus police chief requested additional dogs before the first dog had completely proven itself, Sneed said.

During a question-and-answer session, College of Education senator Joshua Spencer asked how a drug-sniffing dog would change current patrolling in residence halls.

Sneed and Phillips said that while a drug-sniffing dog could be used to patrol dormitories, it would not change the process by which campus police search for drugs.

Currently, if an officer suspects that a room may contain drugs, the officer must request a search warrant before entering the room. If a police dog indicated that a room contained drugs, the officer still would need to obtain a search warrant, Phillips and Sneed said.

Sneed said that if the primary purpose of obtaining a patrol dog was drug searches, campus police already could be borrowing the Carbondale Police dogs.

Sneed also said Labrador retrievers would be the dog of choice for drug searches, not a German shepherd, which SIUC police would use.

Though campus police can borrow one of the Carbondale Police dogs if needed, the handlers are not always on duty or are using the dogs for other cases, Sneed said. A campus police dog would be more accessible.

We don’t have 24-hour coverage, he said. If we can’t get one from Carbondale, Illinois State Police or some other operation that has a dog, we’re just [out of luck].

Anyone interested in donating money for such a program can call SIUC Police Cpl. Ken Sneed at 453-2381.