C.B., one of two dogs owned by the Lawrence Police Department, trains Aug. 13.

There are two new members of the Lawrence Police Department — and they’re a little fluffier than your average officer.

Meet C.B. and Kai: the first Patrol Service Dogs in the department’s history. The German shepherds were purchased earlier this year, and after an intensive training program from March to June, they’re on the ground in Lawrence helping officers track down drugs, evidence and bad guys.

C.B., one of two dogs owned by the Lawrence Police Department, trains Aug. 13.

The pups didn’t come cheap. City commissioners in February unanimously passed a $36,000 proposal to create the PSD unit. Of that, $19,000 was earmarked to purchase the two dogs, with the rest going to equipping patrol vehicles for them and paying for vet bills and food.

LPD Patrol Division Capt. Anthony Brixius, who oversees the PSD program, said the dogs came from a special service-dog breeder in Eastern Europe and were shipped to San Antonio. Brixius, the dogs’ two handlers — Officers Matt Weidl and Kevin Henderson — and Sgt. Casey Cooper went to San Antonio earlier this year to pick out the dogs, who were put through a series of tests before selection, Brixius said.

“You don’t want a dog that’s easily distracted or has tendencies to fight other animals,” Brixius said. “You look for sociable dogs. How much do they want to work? It’s eye-opening.”

Brixius said that’s because the dogs will sometimes search areas with people nearby or residences with pets, so the dog needs to be able to stay focused on the duty at hand.

Brixius said the dogs came “green,” meaning they hadn’t been trained prior to purchase. When the four brought the dogs home, Henderson and Weidl were sent to Topeka for 10 weeks to train the animals to become PSDs through a grueling, intensive program with the Kansas Highway Patrol.

There, the dogs learned to become multipurpose service dogs. Brixius said that while some police dogs are only specifically trained to sniff for bombs or drugs, C.B. and Kai can detect narcotics and human scent, plus “displacement,” which is when a dog can tell where a person changed a scene, such as by stepping on and crunching down grass in a given area.

Lawrence Police's Patrol Service Dog handler Matt Weidl uses hand signals along with some German commands to work with C.B., one of two dogs owned by the department.

And those abilities can save a lot of manpower — and lives, depending on the situation, Brixius said. The longer it takes to begin a search for an object — like a tossed gun that could end up in a child’s hands — the harder it is for a dog to pick up its scent.

That was a problem prior to having a police dog unit, when Brixius said police had to rely on outside agencies like the Topeka Police Department or Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to offer their assistance. If those agencies’ dogs were busy with something in their jurisdictions, Lawrence officers were left to do the dogs’ jobs — without the benefit of a super-sensitive sense of smell.

Such was the case in an incident last year when police investigating an armed robbery believed the suspect had discarded a gun, Brixius said. While it could have taken police hours on end to find the hidden evidence, a dog called in from Topeka was able to find the gun beneath some brush near the scene much faster.

“Without the use of canines, a search could take 10 hours,” Brixius said. “They are primarily a locating tool; we set up a perimeter and let him do his work.”

For instance, the dogs were seen assisting police July 29 during a search for three suspects in a high-speed police chase that ended at Sixth and Michigan streets. The three went in separate directions, and officers were able to find the suspects within about 15 minutes.

Though it’s not every day that the PSDs are needed to find a hiding suspect or hidden crucial evidence, Brixius said that C.B. and Kai typically help with a drug call at least once per shift they work.

Lawrence Police Officer and dog handler Matt Weidl and his dog C.B. work together daily, as part of the police department's new Patrol Service Dog program.

Because the dogs have such important responsibilities, they are not treated as pets. While your dog at home might get a treat and a belly rub for performing a trick, C.B. and Kai get a quick throw of a dog toy as their rewards. And when they go home with their handlers, you won’t see them sleeping at the foot of the bed — instead, they sleep in crates inside their respective handler’s residences.

Brixius said that all officers — apart from the handlers — are directed to never touch the PSDs. Further, only the handler is allowed to feed and praise the dogs.

“Even I have never petted them, and I drove all the way back from San Antonio with them,” Brixius said.

Brixius said that’s so the dogs will strengthen their bonds with their handlers, and to ensure that the dogs won’t listen to the commands of an unknown person, like a suspect hiding from officers.

Brixius said it takes a lot to keep the expert sniffers sharp, so Weidl and Henderson train the dogs about three times a day. Additionally, they take their dogs to Topeka once a week for in-depth training at Kansas Highway Patrol facilities.

In the future, Brixius said he would like to see the police department be able to grow the PSD program and obtain more service dogs. Also, Brixius said that it would be ideal for the dogs to have a place inside police facilities to rest during their shifts — for now, they spend their shifts in their air-conditioned patrol cars as their handlers work.