Cheney police K-9 unit preps for deployment

By BECKY THOMAS

Staff Reporter

Last week, Cheney Police Officer Zeb Campbell was running with a long, taut leash behind Kira, the department's bloodhound.

“You can see, her nose is down, she's working hard,” Campbell said. “Good girl.”

They were completing a training track, and after a few minutes Kira found what she was looking for, Campbell's wife, who often acts as the bait in the tracks Kira and Campbell complete five days a week.

They've been training together for five months, and Feb. 1 Cheney's K-9 unit will be fully deployed. Instead of tracking Campbell's family and colleagues for practice, Kira will be able to search for anyone, and it will be the real thing.

“We can track anything,” Campbell said. “So missing people, endangered adults that walk away from Alzheimer's units, you know, criminal suspects both misdemeanor and felony, we can track them.”

Cheney will join just three other bloodhound units in the state.

“There is no state standard for bloodhounds,” Campbell said. “So there is no state certification process for the dog itself.”

He said he has received help from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, the organization that donated the dog to Cheney in September.

“I keep in telephone contact with them all the time so I let them know how the training's going and what we're doing,” he said.

Kira's training began when she was just weeks old, playing games with handlers. Campbell said bloodhounds are natural trackers, and sniffing out a person is like a game for them.

“To the dog, it's a game of hide and go seek,” he said. Now Kira is able to detect a track that is three hours old and she has completed tracks over 2.5 miles.

Cheney's K-9 unit will serve as a resource for the surrounding area. While Spokane and Kootenai counties both have their own units, the dogs are shepherds and aren't allowed to search for certain people.

“They can only track felony suspects because they'll bite you,” Campbell said. “Those dogs are aggressive where they'll bite, while my dog won't.”

He said Cheney has already received requests from around the area for help in searches, and after Monday, they will be able to respond to the requests. Campbell said he would use caution in deciding what cases the 10-month-old Kira can handle.

“I don't want to start a track on something and my dog can't do it and another dog handler has to come and clean up after me,” he said.

Campbell said the training process has taken a lot of time and hard work on top of his regular patrol duties, but he doesn't regret signing up for the job.

“This is something I've always wanted to do,” he said. “Everybody has those career goals and this was one of mine from the very beginning.”

Campbell hopes to work with the other Washington state bloodhound units, Fife, Chelan and Normandy Park, to compare notes and eventually set up a state policy for bloodhound training.

Despite Kira's success in training tracks, Campbell said he has faced challenges dealing with the dog, who lives in a kennel outside his home.

“She destroys and eats whatever she possibly can,” he said, adding that the dog will grow out of her habit of destroying doggy doors and blankets. “Other than that she does wonderful.”

Becky Thomas can be reached at [email protected].