K-9 Randy reports for duty at Mercer County Jail

CELNA - The Mercer County Sheriff's Office's newest recruit, a German shorthaired pointer with a brown-and-white coat, keen sense of smell and desire to serve, got to work sniffing for narcotics earlier this week at the Mercer County jail.

K-9 Randy and his partner, Corrections Sgt. Zach Vogel, completed 200 hours of training at Shallow Creek Kennels in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, before reporting for their first shift together at the jail Sunday, according to Mercer County Sheriff Doug Timmerman.

Boasting a North American Police Work Dog Association certificate, Randy's primary duty is narcotics detection, specifically in the detention facility environment. Down the road, he may lend his olfactory excellence to drug searches at local schools.

"This is not in any way, shape or form meant to be a therapy dog for the inmates," Timmerman stressed. "This dog is strictly for searching for narcotics inside the jail, in the dorms, in the classroom, in the booking area, all the shower areas and the clothing room areas."

Strict policies dictate that inmates are not to address Randy in any way.

Randy was purchased from and trained at Shallow Creek Kennels for a total of $14,500, an expense that was picked up by the Celina Moose Lodge. The Coldwater and Celina Fraternal Order of Eagles pitched in to support the sheriff's office K-9 fund, which pays for veterinarian services, food and equipment, Timmerman told The Daily Standard.

"We went out there and visited it," he said about Shallow Creek Kennels. "It's a very clean place, a very high-energy place. We got a lot of good feedback from them. They suggested the German shorthaired pointer specifically for this reason (of drug detection) because their nose is extremely strong."

About seven officers expressed interest in becoming Randy's partner, a commitment that requires co-habitation.

Some were weeded out from the pack because they either had animals at home they were concerned about or their landlord wouldn't allow Randy in the home.

"We did an interview process, and we had selected the people that we thought would be good with it," Timmerman said. "At the end of the day, Sgt. Vogel was the one that we picked."

Vogel is currently in charge of one of the two midnight shifts at the jail.

"(Randy) will continue to stay on whatever shifts Sgt. Vogel's on," Timmerman added.

Rather than replacing an aging, contraband-detecting body scanner with a new unit that could cost $200,000, Timmerman wants to see if a dog can perform the same critical function.

"This is a pilot program. I want to see how successful it is," he said. "If this dog's successful, then we'll consider in years down the road adding an additional canine or canines to the jail."

Timmerman is also open to one day enlisting the help of Randy in drug searches of schools.

"It's a multi-county thing because usually when we get dogs here, we'll get them over from New Bremen and Delphos and Auglaize County," he said. "All the canine handlers … they all train together in their canine training group, and when they go search a school, they'll do a certain area and try to get three, sometimes maybe four schools done a day."

Along with Randy, the sheriff's office also has K-9 Hex, who is partnered with Deputy Spencer Heinl. K-9 Ossi retired from the force earlier this year.

"There are plans to replace Ossi. That's a work in progress. We've had some other local organizations that have reached out to us to offer assistance," Timmerman said. "We are working through logistics at this point, simply because we would need to look at purchasing a K-9 car and ordering cruisers, which is darn near a year out. So there's no sense of having a dog here until we can get the equipment set aside for that."

Timmerman said he has come to appreciate the roles of dogs in law enforcement.

"I was a big naysayer of the dogs, but they do serve a valuable purpose, especially when you're talking about a couple-hundred-thousand-dollar's piece of equipment in the jail that we could replace with a $14,500 dog," he said.