Careers in Policing - Canine Officer

This article provides information about the duties, responsibilities, and job description of a canine officer in law enforcement. It discusses the education requirements and skills needed for this career. Canine officers are responsible for handling and training police dogs to perform tasks such as detecting drugs and explosives. They work in various law enforcement agencies and have specialized training in dog handling.

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Careers in Policing - Canine officer
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Duties of job and education requirements
Canine officer commonly referred to as K9, are professionals that enforce law. They are
associated with the department of police dogs (K9s) in carrying out of various functions that they
are assigned to perform. As stated by Reynolds & Hicks (2014), the police officer that works
with the dog is referred to as canine officers. They are always responsible for handling dogs and
help in training different dogs on various tasks that human cannot handle such as detection of
drugs, illegal substances and bomb. Canine officer tends to be a highly demanding job that needs
specialized training in addition to normal police duties. In most cases, canine officials concur to
the extra accountability of training as well as offering care for their police dogs. Graduation from
the academy that deals with police training is vital for the career as the canine officer. However,
many years of regulation enforcement practice might also be needed for one to be a qualified
canine officer. According to Gąsiorowski (2019), canine officers always have similar training
together with the education requirements of regular officers. However, differences arise as
canine officers pass through extra training on how to effectively handle the dog. The department
of dog units always arranges such training of dog handling. Before an individual can embark on
the career of canine officer, they need to understand the practice by knowing the requirements
along with additional duties that an individual need to fulfill to be a qualified canine officer.
Major duties of canine officers
Any canine officer has the primary responsibility of handling and ensuring obedience
from any dog that they handle. Such compliance is always attained through extensive
instructional plans as well as off-duty training. Besides, canines, in most instances, live with their
handlers that are responsible for maintaining their practice both on and off-duty within their

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operations (Altalib, Lami, & Al-Safi, 2018). Canine officers have the responsibilities of using
specialized code words that their dogs understand effectively while they also feed dogs a strict
and healthful diet. Additionally, canine officers can work in the state, local, together with federal
law enforcement, alongside in the military. Customs, boundary patrol, agency of drug
enforcement, along with transport security management among others are some of the agencies
that employ K9 handlers to assist them in conducting their operations.
Canine officers’ duties are to handle as well as ensure obedience from the dogs that they
control. Such compliance comes through the extensive process of instructional programs together
with off-duty training (Kakar, 2013). Just like regular police, canine officers are having the duty
for apprehending criminals. In most instances, such officers do not perform frequent traffic stops,
but they patrol the street in ensuring that there is the safety of property and public. They can find
lawbreakers through searching for buildings and open areas (Zaid Malik, 2018). Besides, canine
officers have a keen sense of any smell by the use of dogs. Therefore, officers have the duty for
handling canines during tracking processes so that they cannot cause damage by biting criminals
that can further affect the wellbeing of criminals.
Responsibilities of canine officers
The duties assigned or accomplished by canine officers always vary greatly depending on
the specialty of the department of police and the individual officer is assigned to work and
control. The job of a canine officer requires the capacity to perform the duty of a standard police
officer but with the well-trained dog (Barko & Barko, 2019). Some of the general responsibilities
of canine officer comprise of responding to different calls for police such as emergencies. Other
obligations are not limited to patrolling assigned regions with the trained dog, issuing citations

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and making arrests of lawbreakers, writing and filling the report, and testifying in court as
required (Ambos, 2016). Canine officers also have the duties of inspecting different scenes of
crime and finding and securing any evidence in the crime scene and training and handling a K-9
dog.
The K-9 trainer can utilize their dog in enforcing civic order while they are on guard. The
major duty for a police dog is follow along with arresting suspects that might try to flee from
administrators after or before being arrested. Dogs are likely to be given adequate training for
one field skill like proper identification of goods that are smuggled or narcotics, performing
different search and rescue operations, locating human remains, or detecting accelerants at arson
scenes (Costigan, 2014). Hence, the use of dos by officers has been an established restriction to
different lawbreakers that may aim to tackle the administrator. The handlers of dogs have the
responsibilities of maintaining the full management of the dog every time as they are the look for
prospect accountability.
Job description of canine officers
Canine officers are not different with standard police officers as they perform some of the
same tasks and duties with those officers. They have the responsibility to patrol the community
to respond or prevent crimes, conduct a detailed investigation, locate, and arrest perpetrators as
well as guarding individuals in detention or prison (Baeriswyl, Krause, & Schwaninger, 2016).
However, some of the differences in their job description with standard police officers come in e
form of the care that they offer to their canine partners that comprise of feeding, grooming, and
caring for their wellbeing. More fundamentally, their job is to pair with dogs to work with them
in the variety of scenarios that include searching for explosives, cadavers, accelerants, and

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narcotics. Handler has the job of ensuring that their dogs are obedient as well as ready to follow
every command both off and one of the leashes. They have the role of ensuring that every dog is
capable of performing efficiently in any search or looking for lost and missing individuals and
felons (Lee, 2017). Canine officers can be used by different order protection unit, homeland
security, department of drugs, and transport security administration to enhance security in
various sectors.
Salary of canine officer
Salary of different canine officers differs following their region or country of work within
the global society. For instance, according to the statistics from the US Bureau of labour, the
mean annual salary for police together with sheriff’s patrol officers was about sixty-five
thousand dollars as of May 2018 (Costigan, 2014). The bureau of labour statistics had noted that
canine officers receive extra compensation due to the specialized nature of their duties around
different borders and regions. Besides, in most countries, the salary of K-9 officer is
commensurate with the time in grade and service of a particular officer. Although bureau of
labour statistics in most states do not report specially on canine officers, the bureau of labour
statistics says that in standard police administrators along with detectives earns the average wage
of about sixty-five thousand dollars annually. Hence, such annual wage remains to be higher for
police together with the officer in the national government that can aim to receive an average of
eighty-seven thousand dollars annually (Milosevic-Stolic & Marcek, 2016). Moreover, several
agencies might recompense canine officers for the extra time that they are spent in caring for
their canine partner, ongoing training, and costs of cleaning that they incur in the process of
conducting their duties.

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Skills and competencies of canine officers
To be successful in the role o canine officer, an individual generally need to possess
different qualities as well as skills. Such attributes and abilities that an individual must have to
comprises of interpersonal skills, mental and physical stamina, perceptiveness, along with
communication abilities, and respect for animals (Gąsiorowski, 2019). For instance, the
interpersonal skill can help an individual to display improved attention alongside support from
the society and communal media when the officer is a public demonstrator. Officer together with
their K-9 handler needs to be attentive throughout their shrifts and frequently must be on the alert
for extended durations. Hence, by having physical stamina can help in improving the operations
of such officers (Reynolds & Hicks, 2014). For perceptiveness, the canine officer needs to be
capable to lift up on stating different behaviours with signals from their canine complements
together with suspected individuals. Having good perception remains to be the essential factor in
the operations of such kind of individuals (Kakar, 2013). Being that canine officer work with
dogs, the quality of respect for the animal must be shown by every officer to give appreciate
every dog for their work that no other human can do without the use of advanced technological
devices.
Recruitment for canine officer
The primary step for an individual to become a canine officer is through application for
the job with an organization that deals with law enforcement either in the public or private
sector. Many organizations have strict credentials that require a minimum of a certificate of high
school together with an outstanding physical state (Bulen, 2015). However, several large police

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companies anticipate different applicants to have a linked degree. After finishing the application
process, staffs are allowed to go to academy used for training.

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References
Altalib, R., Lami, F., & Al-Safi, A. (2018). Assessment of Competencies of District Surveillance
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Ambos, E. (2016). From CUR's Executive Officer Column. Council On Undergraduate
Research Quarterly, 36(4). doi: 10.18833/curq/36/4/9
Baeriswyl, S., Krause, A., & Schwaninger, A. (2016). Emotional Exhaustion and Job
Satisfaction in Airport Security Officers – Work–Family Conflict as Mediator in the Job
Demands–Resources Model. Frontiers In Psychology, 7. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00663
Barko, V., & Barko, V. (2019). Job Description of Community Police Officers of the National
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Costigan, B. (2014). Post-Harris Guidance for Defense Attorneys Challenging Police Dogs.
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Gąsiorowski, M. (2019). Use of Police Dogs in the Polish Police in the Opinion of Dog
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Kakar, S. (2013). Race and police officers' perceptions of their job performance: An analysis of
the relationship between police officers' race, education level, and job performance.
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Zaid Malik, M. (2018). Government Service, Officers And Supporting Staff: Towards
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