K-9 searches Bryant-Denny Stadium

There is a lot more to Alabama football than watching the Crimson Tide play in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Before gameday arrives, the University of Alabama Police Department’s K-9 unit searches every inch of the stadium Thursday and Friday.
Sgt. Rusty Romine and dog Benny staff UAPD’s K-9 program.
Romine, who has been with UAPD for 11 years, said he became interested in being a police officer in 1994 while he was a still a UA student.
Now, Romine is on call 24/7, because he’s the “dog keeper.”
Benny, a yellow Labrador retriever from Czechoslovakia, weighs in at 100 pounds. He was placed in patrol service in June 2006 when he was a year and a half old and is trained to detect explosives.
Breeding overseas is superior to the United States, Romine said.
“It’s a business over there. It’s a sport over here,” he said.
A K-9 runs from around $8,500 to $13,000, depending on the level of training.
Romine first met Benny in Daytona, Fla. where Southern Hills Kennels trained him for 14 weeks. While there, Romine trained with Benny for an additional two weeks so they could get acquainted. Even now, Romine said he and Benny still train every day.
Selecting a dog that can find explosives is a difficult process, Romine said. They have to have instinct-driven traits and be willing to do anything for a toy. Canines also have to be used to a loud environment, not become easily distracted and recognize odors upon receiving a reward.
As a training measure, Benny’s trainers put an explosive in a box and make Benny smell the explosive in the box. Once Benny smells it, a toy pops out of the box. This is called “passive alert,” Romine said.
“You do that over and over again until it becomes a routine for the dog,” Romine said. “Now, Benny knows that when he goes out to search, he’s trying to find his toy.”
Because Benny is the only K-9 dog the University has, UAPD calls in reinforcements to make the search process easier. The University brings in six to 10 dogs from the Tuscaloosa Police Department, Tuscaloosa County Sheriffs Office, Northport Police Department, Shelby County Sheriff Office, Birmingham Police Department and the Hoover Police Department.
Starting Thursday and Friday at 8 a.m., the officers and their dogs begin searching Bryant-Denny Stadium, putting the stadium on lockdown.
They average around four hours to search the structure, perimeter and content of the stadium.
“We search every vehicle, tent, bush and trash can,” Romine said. “There is nothing we don’t check.”
Because of their short attention span, dogs can only work a maximum of 20-30 minutes at a time. Romine said the dogs need rest or they will begin to get distracted and uninterested past this point.
Benny and the other canines have never found any explosives in Bryant-Denny, but they have found firearms.
“He’s just like any other thing I bring to work,” Romine said. “Benny’s not a pet. He’s a tool.”

By Veronica Olah

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