Taking a sniff out of crime

Whether he is sniffing for drugs, searching the woods for a lost child or making public appearances, 4-year-old Falco, the city’s police dog, has earned his keep in the department as a four-legged community goodwill ambassador.

Falco, a Belgian Malinois, came to Westfield from Europe four years ago ready to take his place in the community and the home of his handler, K-9 Officer Christopher M. Coach.

With a total startup cost of about $12,000, which included the dog, shipping from Belgium and three months of intensive training for both Falco and Coach, “Falco is worth his weight in gold,” Coach said.

“His worth is indescribable,” Coach added. “He’s a great community relations tool, and most kids in Westfield know and love Falco.”

Westfield Police Capt. Michael A. McCabe said the annual cost of maintaining the K-9 unit – minimal in comparison to the multitude of benefits it provides the department and community – is about $5,000, an amount that covers expenses such as dog food, regular veterinarian visits and a full-time cruiser dedicated to the unit.

“In the grand scheme of things, considering that he’s part of our day-to-day operations, the unit is negligible to run,” he said.

The department budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is $6.3 million.

Falco’s keen sense of smell, Coach and McCabe said, is utilized frequently in narcotics searches and several times per year in the search of missing children and adults, as well as used to track suspects fleeing from the scene of a crime.

“The list of the benefits of having Falco is pretty much endless,” McCabe said. “You just can’t put a price tag on it.”

While the dog’s public appearances at city schools and youth organizations such as the Westfield Boys and Girls Club have made Falco an important goodwill ambassador in the community, it is his ability to assist in police investigations and searches that have made him an invaluable member of Westfield’s public safety team, Coach said.

For example, last summer during a suffocating heat wave, Falco, Southwick’s Belgian Malinois Jax and his handler Officer Thomas Krutka and the Granby K-9 unit were called in to assist Agawam police in the search of a suicidal teen male hiding in a thickly settled forested area off Main Street.

“It was two hours before we found him,” Coach said. “It was a real large, heavily wooded area with streams, and it was hot.”

Falco is also regularly called upon to keep public schools in Westfield and communities across Western Massachusetts such as Agawam, West Springfield, Ware and Ludlow drug-free, Coach said.

“We assist numerous local schools with locker searches for narcotics,” he said.

BY MANON L. MIRABELLI

LINK