Protecting the Nation -- One Sniff at a Time

Oct. 12, 2005 — -- When New York went on high alert last week for a possible terrorist attack on the city's subway system, police officers beefed up patrols, bag searches were increased and -- perhaps most importantly -- the best noses in the business were on the job.

"For explosive-type detection, canines are the absolute best," said Mark Miller, president of Executive Protection Systems, who spent 20 years in the U.S. Army chemical corps and has worked with the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court on disaster and terrorism preparedness and security.

Dogs in the Canine Enforcement Program of U.S. Customs and Border Protection already guard the nation's airports, 73 different seaports and 69 Border Patrol stations -- the largest number of such teams of any federal law enforcement agency. A separate program will boost their ranks even further, as teams begin training this month for deployment in 10 mass transit and commuter rail systems, an expansion of the Transportation Security Administration's National Explosive Detection Canine Team Program. Customs and Border Protection dogs and TSA dogs complement police dogs and those used by local jurisdictions.

The dogs are trained to catch chemicals, explosives, huge stashes of currency, agriculture products, narcotics and even concealed humans at the borders.

Most dogs in the program are from the sports breeds, including retrievers, shepherds and mixed breeds. There's also the Beagle Brigade, a group of smaller dogs that interact with the public in the nation's airports. Passive-response dogs sit when they detect an odor so they work around people. Dogs trained to find narcotics will bite and scratch containers when they catch a whiff of illegal substances.