By Jeff Adelson
New Orleans Times-Picayune
MANDERVILLE, La. — Weighing in at just more than 50 pounds, Luke doesn’t fit the typical image of a vicious police dog. He still has a puppy’s playfulness, jumping up to rest his paws on his handler’s chest when allowed but sticking shyly by his leg as strangers approach.
But when drugs are in the air, the 2-year-old Belgian malinois bolts into action.
Officials hope Luke and his handler, officer Mike Martina, will provide drug-detection abilities that the department has lacked for five years.
Martina, 28, had a couple things to recommend him for the position of police dog handler: He has owned dogs most of his life and, just like his new partner, he has spent his time on the force focused on rooting out hidden drugs.
During one training session this week, Luke jumped toward a patrol car door that contained about six grams of marijuana after catching the scent from yards away, even before he had been ordered to go hunting for it.
In past searches, Luke has sniffed out marijuana seeds and even the residue left in pipes, Martina said.
Luke has a big collar to fill. His predecessor, Barry, also a malinois, won a series of awards for his sharp nose during his 10 years of service, including claiming first place in a statewide competition among drug-sniffing dogs. He also was beloved by members of the department and community, even earning a place on Mandeville’s police memorial after his death five years ago.
Since Barry’s death, the department has gone without a dog for budgetary reasons. But last year, students at Mandeville Junior High raised $4,500 to help the department pay for a new police dog, covering more than half the $8,000 needed to train Luke and Martina.
Martina is still working a regular patrol beat, but is on call to respond whenever another officer stops a suspect they think is carrying drugs, said Capt. Ron Ruple. In addition, the department has begun bringing Luke to schools and other locations in the city in an attempt to uncover drugs hidden in parked cars, Martina said.
In order to search a vehicle or a suspect, an officer must establish probable cause by, for example, seeing drug paraphernalia through a window. But courts have held that officers alerted by a drug-sniffing dog legally can conduct a search, ruling that the dog’s reaction amounts to probable cause.
In fact, Luke’s first success came shortly after he joined the force, when he was brought to a high school parking lot and alerted officers to marijuana and drug paraphernalia in two cars, Martina said.
“The dog is a tool, just like your gun, your handcuffs, your flashlight,” Martina said. “But to his handler he’s also something more.”
Law enforcement agencies in St. Tammany Parish use a variety of dogs in their work. Slidell switched from malinois to more sedate German shepherds for their drug-sniffing and apprehension dogs a few years ago, Capt. Kevin O’Neil said. State Police keep both malinois and Labradors on hand for drug and bomb detection.
The Sheriff’s Office employs several malinois that are trained for both drug-sniffing and the apprehension of suspects, a skill for which Luke has not been trained.
Mandeville still calls in the Sheriff’s Office when it needs to catch a suspect, such as a stalker who hid under a car last week. But though Barry could be used for both drug searches and apprehensions, the department decided there weren’t enough manhunts through Mandeville to justify the expense of getting Luke trained in both skills, Ruple said.
Martina says children enjoy having Luke around when he’s off-duty. His wife has even suggested the family get another malinois.
At home, Martina’s kids enjoy running with Luke around the back yard. That is, when he’s not being affectionate.
“He’ll get up and curl on your lap like a lap dog,” Martina said.
A 50-pound lap dog.
Copyright 2009 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company