Officer Charlie Moffitt gave an enjoyable presentation of the Omaha Police Department’s Canine
Unit. Raised in California and studying marine biology he gravitated to Omaha around 2002 to join the canine unit. OPD uses German Shepherds, Belgian Malinois and Labs.
There are over 60 dog teams in the area. The dogs are 18-24 months when they are brought for training. The dogs are “green”, meaning not trained when they join the OPD. The dogs can sniff out over 1000 different odors and are particularly adept at detecting drugs. The dogs are trained to meet guidelines of the International Police Conference so can be outsourced anywhere in the world if needed.
The dogs cost about $10,000. The service life of the dogs is about 8 years at which time they are retired; in some cases then domesticated. Officer Mollitt is responsible for training dogs both for OPD as well as for agencies in states surrounding Nebraska. He presented interesting videos showing drugs and cash captured by OPD as part of the drug interdiction program.
Thanks to Kip Squire for bring Officer Mollitt to our Kiwanis Club.