By Dan E. Way
Chapel Hill Herald
HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. — Talon and Sampson may sound like the sort of names reserved for superheroes -- and some might say they fit the role -- but these four-legged law enforcement officers are not immune to bullets and blades.
Several groups of town residents want to give the police dogs increased protection from harm, in the form of $800 vests that are bullet- and stab-resistant.
“In these days and times, the town budgets cannot provide. There’s just no money in the budget for these safety vests,” said Kathleen Ferguson, the lead volunteer with the Hillsborough Heights Neighborhood Watch, whose borders, roughly, are Forrest and Nash streets, Highway 70 and Revere Road.
Her group, along with the Fairview and West Hillsborough Neighborhood Watch organizations, are sponsoring a K9 demonstration and fund-raiser on Saturday for just that purpose.
“The focus of this is fund-raising, and any excess funds will go toward the purchase of a replacement canine” when one of the current K9 dogs goes into retirement, Ferguson said.
Talon and Sampson are trained to find a variety of drugs, search for items and people, track people and retrieve items. Last year they responded to nearly 175 calls within the town, as well as for mutual aid to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and agencies in surrounding communities.
“The dogs have served us well, and part of our role is to facilitate between the citizens and HPD. It’s a way to support HPD for the way they have supported the citizen watches so very well,” Ferguson said. And the dogs are worth the effort, she said.
“The purchase begins around $10,000, training is another $5,000 -- and that doesn’t get into officers’ time and the rest of the infrastructure to support -- so an $800 vest to support a $15,000 investment to us is a no-brainer,” Ferguson said.
“It’s only a matter of time before a suspect attempts to harm them, and each dog represents a significant investment,” she said.
“If you can imagine, the K9’s are the tip of the spear” because they make contact with a suspect first, said Officer Scott Foster, who handles Talon, a Czechoslovakian-bred German shepherd.
“They are most likely to get wiped out” by a desperate criminal because they are first in, said Michael Foushee, who handles Sampson, an older, thick-muscled, 84-pound German shepherd bred in Holland.
“They’re usually going to be the worst people” who the dogs are tracking, because they have committed crimes and have refused orders to surrender or to come out of a building, Foster said.
“Every building search is dangerous,” Foushee said. “It’s unpredictable” because a suspect could be hiding in a closet, behind furniture or in some other concealed location waiting to surprise an officer with anything ranging from a gun to a knife or a screwdriver.
That is why the dogs are so invaluable.
“They use their higher senses to sniff and see” suspects to alert their human partner, Foster said.
“A lot of bad guys will think twice about jumping on four police officers before they think about messing with a police dog” whose growl, bark and long, sharp exposed teeth show it means business, Foster said. “It’s a primal fear.”
“When people need help, they call the police. When police need help, they call the K9’s,” Foster said. “We both last year pursued with the dogs people who had been involved in violent felonies.” He said he nearly stepped on one suspect hiding in a riverbed in the dark of night until Talon alerted him to the man’s presence.
And, Foushee said, “Both of our dogs have found weapons after shootings,” discarded by fleeing felons, but turned into evidence for a court trial because of the dogs’ ability to find them in weeds and woods.
Police Chief Clarence Birkhead expressed gratitude for the community initiative.
“These three neighborhoods epitomize the essence of community watch in how they get involved with what’s going on in their communities and how they partner with HPD to ensure the quality of life we enjoy is maintained and enriched through activities just like this,” he said in a prepared statement.
Copyright 2009 Chapel Hill Herald