Below is the actual article written by Leon Thompson which gives you much more information than I did. It appeared in the Saturday, April 18, 2009 edition of The St. Albans Messenger.
Drug dog to roam St. Albans schools
By LEON THOMPSON
Messenger Staff Writer
ST. ALBANS CITY — Truman's golden head hovered over and rummaged under the right wheel well of a small trailer parked outside the St. Albans City Police Department early Friday morning.
Sniff, sniff, sniff ...
Sniff, sniff, sniff ...
Less than a minute earlier, Truman's handler and friend, Joe Harrington, shook the black food pouch that hung off his right hip. "Alright," Truman thought. "Time to get to work."
Truman, a yellow Labrador retriever, started at a red pick-up truck (nothing) moved to a blue sedan (still nothing) and then his top-notch nose directed him to the trailer. When he had his target - but not until he knew - he sat and looked up at Harrington, with eyes that said, "Here it is, boss."
Harrington pulled a small can of gunpowder from under the wheel well and gave Truman his edible reward. Truman wagged his tail.
"That's great," said Ned Caron, Bellows Free Academy-St. Albans (BFA) principal. "I guess we move forward now, right? Let's do it."
"It's worth trying," said Gary t Taylor, city police chief.
When a new school year starts this fall, a passive-alert dog like Truman will regularly roam the halls of BFA and split its remaining time between the St. Albans City School and the St. Albans Town Educational Center.
Only that dog will not be trained to detect hundreds of explosive odors in five families. Instead, the yellow lab's work at BFA and the other city-based schools will involve drugs, of all kinds.
Marijuana. Cocaine. Even prescription pills.
Truman sniffs out bombs. St. Albans City's dog will sniff out bongs.
"There's certainly some sentiment that this might be a necessary thing to do," Taylor told city aldermen during their regular meeting earlier this week.
The Franklin Central Supervisory Union (FCSU) will likely be the first in Vermont to have a drug-detecting dog regularly roaming its campus, according to Taylor.
School districts that are hypersensitive to student rights and confidentiality scoff at the notion of drug dogs, but the FCSU and school administrators welcomed the idea. In an April 10 letter to city aldermen, FCSU Superintendent Bob Rosane showed "enthusiastic support" for a school drug detection program in St. Albans City.
"I see this program less as a reactive response to an illicit drug problem at the schools," Rosane wrote, "and more as a proactive opportunity to increase the community's capacity to prevent illicit drug possession and activities from taking place."
On Monday, Mayor Marty Manahan said, "We're fortunate to have someone like him (Rosane), at that level, backing something like this." The prospect of using a drug-detecting dog in city schools excite city officials, who have worked with police to battle high crime rates and staggering amounts of illegal prescription drug deals and abuse.
Officer Jason Wetherby, the city's school resource officer (SRO), will keep the drug-detecting yellow lab and train with him, either by working with a retired Vermont State Police captain - Taylor's easier and cost-effective preference - or through a weeks-long sessions in North Carolina.
If Wetherby leaves the force, the dog either goes with him or is donated as a pet. As a last case and improbably alternative, it would be euthanized.
The city will spend $10,000 in federal grant funds on the dog and training. A federally required cruiser for the dog, along with pet food and veterinary care, will likely be covered by corporate sponsorships, according to Taylor.
With help from Connecticut State Police, the city will likely acquire its dog via the Eye Dog Foundation for the Blind, which must find homes for canine students that don't quite pass muster for their highly specialized tasks.
Like Truman, the city's dog will engage in passive alerts as part of its Pavlovian conditioning police work. An aggressive3 alert dog - typically German Shepherds - will bark, scratch and claw when they make a find.
Passive-alert dogs, such as Truman, simply sit, though it’s not an "I'm-tired-and-need-a-rest" sit.
"The handler knows the sit,” Taylor said.
Friday morning, Collins-Perley Sports & Fitness Center Manager Dave Kimel, who also watched Truman's demonstration, wondered how a drug dog at BFA might react to students carrying prescribed drugs, or the residue from them.
Wetherby explained that school nurses must administer prescribed drugs to students, and that students aren't allowed to carry them on school campuses.
Harrington, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) explosives specialist, said dogs like Truman will not work unless secretly prompted by the handler. The city doesn't intend to have its dog in work mode all day long on any school campus, Taylor said.
"There are really two purposes, here," the chief said Wednesday, seated in his office. "Deterrent and enforcement. The dog will almost be a mascot at BFA, because he's so friendly and approachable. But people will know what he does, what he's trained for. That's where deterrence comes in....
"You know, there are far more good kids in the school system then there are bad kids. This (drug dog) is a unique way to do something that's never been done before."
Taylor and Harrington have known each other for years, so Taylor was familiar with Truman. The dog, now 7 years old, has seen six Super Bowls, a Republican National Convention, a Democratic National Convention, and the inauguration of President Obama - more than many Americans.
Truman even has his own ATF trading card.
"But he wouldn't know a bag of marijuana from a bail of hay," Harrington said.
Harrington thought the city's idea to use passive-alert dogs in schools was a "fantastic idea." The Mayor's Task Force on Crime, which called for more police in St. Albans City, backs the effort.
"We suggested two extra officers," said Peter DesLauriers, task force chairman and former mayor. "I guess we're getting the same number of feet."