LAW ENFORCEMENT
RIGHT ON THE NOSE
BY DEBRA MAGRANN
8 Port St. Lucie Magazine
JOHN BIONDO PHOTOS
Officer Colin Duncombe and his K-9 partner, Zoran, corner a suspect during a practice run. Tracking human scent is but one facet of a K-9 unit’s training.
New center provides K-9 teams
real-world training
Police training has gone to the dogs in Port St. Lucie.
Six K-9 dogs and their handlers now have a realworld
course that will keep them in top form, thanks
to a $60,000 grant from the Ronald J. Woods Charitable
Trust to establish a training center.
A grand opening and dedication ceremony was held in
February. During the event, Chaplain Frank Smith blessed
the field and police officers demonstrated K-9 tactical defense
techniques to showcase the maneuverability of the course.
The site at the McCarty Ranch Preserve on Range Line Road
features amenities including a large building for workshops or
classes. It offers every conceivable scenario to put a police dog
through its paces, from jumping through windows to sniffing
out bombs and narcotics. Until now, there has been no dedicated
training center or agility course for these canine cops.
“We had a location near Bayshore in an industrial area
that was just thrown together,” says Master Sgt. Frank Sabol,
public information officer for the police department, “but it
was badly damaged when a driver lost control and ran into a
gas line. It messed up the whole area.”
Police service dogs have been on duty in the city since the
1980s. Of the six that serve the city, one is a bloodhound with
special powers: The ability to track a scent that may linger
over the course of days or weeks, like that of a decomposing >>