Basic entry level skills & legal requirements for law enforcement bloodhound canine teams

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the basic entry-level skills required to start deployment in actual casework for law enforcement bloodhound canine teams. The subject of this study consisted of law enforcement bloodhound canine team instructors from the National Police Bloodhound Association and the Law Enforcement Bloodhound Association; both associations provide training for law enforcement personnel entering into bloodhound canine work. The survey identified the instructor's years of experience as a law enforcement bloodhound handler, as a bloodhound canine team instructor, and the volume of cases worked as a collective group. These organizations offer five-day training seminars in April. The L.E.B.A seminar is held in Maryland and the N.P.B.A. seminar in New York. Because both are scheduled at approximately the same time on the east coast, many new law enforcement bloodhound canine teams are unable attend source of excellent training. This study provides guidelines for those individuals entering law enforcement bloodhound work that are unable to attend either training session. Those individuals unable to attend training will have a standard guideline in order to evaluate their level of preparedness to deploy the bloodhound team on actual cases. This study also provides the legal requirements of bloodhound handlers that have evolved through various state and federal case law as it pertains to training and record keeping in order to allow the canine's search results to be admissible in a court of law.