Civilian Drug dogs

Well I'm afraid I can't answer your question exactly but this might help. As a civilian you will probably have a hard time based upon our experience.

Several years ago we had our B'EL evaluated as a possible SAR dog - as it turned out she exhibited outstanding abilities in search and rescue. We trained for a long time. When I thought we were ready to contribute I offered our services to two local police agencies that had just retired their K9 officers. I received a very polite thanks but no thanks. In regard to volunteer K9s the towns simply could not risk the possibility of a lawsuit by some else if B'EL might bite someone during a search or by me if someone might injure her. They told me that they really couldn't use us unless there was some sort of catastrophic event. From that point we pretty much demonstrated K9 Search & Rescue at local fairs and community gatherings. Then we had thought about advancing her to do drug searches but the same rules applied.

That is why we now train therapy dogs. If you are in to community service and volunteering, therapy is a much easier path!!

Good Luck – I will be curious to learn how you make out.

Well, we were attached to bonifide SAR group but in our immediate area it made no difference. I am since not up on any of this - things might have changed.

There are civilians that contract out detection services. They contract with schools, businesses, industry etc to detect drugs on their property.

I think it would be rare, that law enforcement would "hire" detection services, particularly in the area of drugs and explosives from civilians. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I've not seen it in my 40 years.

Having said that, there is a significant difference in the use of a law enforcement dog in a school and a civilian. I'm not an attorney, so this isn't legal advice. Generally, schools have what is commonly referred to as "proprietary rights". Meaning, students have a lesser expectation of privacy in their lockers, vehicles on school property etc, therefore, many of the rules under the 4th Amendment, Search and seizure, do not apply. It's much to much typing for me to try to explain. Suffice it to say; if law enforcement conducts a canine sniff and they find something, they are bound by law to prefer criminal charges. If a civilian contractor dogs were to find something, the school can take administrative action and does not have to prefer criminal charges.

In order to have a detector dog, it would have to be trained (duh, I know that's obvious) and "certified" by some entity. There are certification agencies that will certify civilian detector dogs. Training is available from many vendors. You'd have to search to find where they are located, length of training etc. It can be done. In fact, it's done in many places.

DFrost