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CPA Blog: MPD's cutest officer wows class

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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer

Posted: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 1:02 pm

CPA Blog: MPD's cutest officer wows class | MPD, CPA, Greg Brown

Officer Greg Brown and Murf

The Citizens Police Academy was introduced to arguably the cutest officer in the Murfreesboro Police Department on Tuesday night.

His name is Murf and he’s a black Labrador retriever, trained to sniff out contraband.

Murf’s partner, Officer Greg Brown, gave a brief primer on MPD’s K-9 unit, what Brown called the force’s best “probable cause tool.”

The dog is trained to recognize to smells of various drugs, from marijuana and cocaine to methamphetamines and heroin.

“We’re taking what the dog does naturally and converting it to where the dog associates a positive reward with the narcotic odors,” Brown said.

In Murf’s case, the reward is his favorite toy – a tennis ball. Brown said other dogs are rewarded with food or a towel.

Drug dogs are trained to associate the smell of drugs to that reward, much as a family dog is trained to associate tricks like sit, shake or stay with a reward (for my dog, he’ll only sit with the promise of a Milkbone).

Only drug dogs are trained to alert to the scent of an illegal drug.

When Murf sniffs out a drug, he’ll dig and scratch where he catches the scent. This is called an aggressive alert and lets Brown know the dog has found something.

On the other hand, bomb-detecting dogs use a passive alert, where the dog will sit very still when it smells an explosive. Brown said it could be very bad to have a dog pawing at an explosive.

Brown showed a tape from his patrol car where he pulled over a man on Broad Street near State Route 840 in January.

After Brown established the man was driving on an expired license, he asked to search the car. The man declined, so Brown let Murf sniff the car.

Murf alerted at the front, driver-side door and after a brief search, officers discovered a quarter-pound of marijuana stashed under the driver’s seat.

But Murf’s life isn’t all work. He lives with Brown’s family in a “doggie igloo” with his own private run in the backyard. He’s housed with his friends – two drug dogs-in-training.

Stay tuned next week when the CPA learns about vice investigations.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.

Tagged under CPA, Greg Brown, MPD

Member Opinions:

By: Onthehill on 10/25/09
If you have never taken this class, I urge you to do so. I went thru both the City & the County to gain more experience as to what they do & also to gain more experience as a writer. So many never comprehend what these officers truely go thru. Here, you have a close up look at a day in the life of an officer. Both facilities take pride in these classes, for they really do want their citizens to know what they do.

By: Boo on 10/26/09
Thank you, Michelle, for this great story! I love reading these positive stories about these wonderful animals and the officers who work with, and, love and care for them.