Dogs Make a Difference on Naperville Police Department

These co-workers never talk back. They keep a low profile and don’t whine about work very often. When they do whine, it usually means that something is up and their partners take notice.

Kairo and Sabek are two important members of the . The German shepherds are part of the department’s K-9 unit and spend time patrolling Naperville with their handlers Eddie Corneliusen and Chris Sherwin. 

Next year the department will add a new K-9 officer, Eric Muska, who will be getting his own dog.

As the department adds a new dog next year for Muska, who has been preparing for his place on the K-9 team for several years, the department will be retiring Corneliusen's dog Kairo, an 11-year-old German shepherd. 

The officers said they hope that the department will consider keeping three dogs on the force, allowing Corneliusen to maintain his place on the K-9 unit, though that outcome is not certain.

“We are looking to facilitate having a third canine with the unit,” Corneliusen said. “With the influx of drugs, it almost necessitates it.”

The men are all patrol officers and when they are out in Naperville, they always have the dogs with them. The patrol dog is a “Jack of all trades” able to detect narcotics, search buildings and search for people. They are trained for more general use, but the dogs’ noses know. And, they can easily sniff out drugs or people, according to the officers. 

For the dogs, they love working and being challenged, the officers said. Their training never ends and every week the officers have special traning sessions.

Working on the team is appealing to the officers because whenever there is a crime, such as a robbery or burglary in progress, they can choose to show up on the scene to assist, they said.

In recent drug busts, including a man being arrested after transporting marijuana on an Amtrak train, the dogs were used to detect the drugs, Corneliusen said.

“They are a big asset,” Sherwin said. “If we have to do a building search, we can send a dog in rather than three officers. The dog can locate someone and usually subdue them.”

When officers need to conduct a vehicle search looking for drugs, it might take police officers hours to find anything, but the time is cut down significantly when the dogs are involved, Corneliusen said. What may be invisible to a human can be smelled by a dog. Packets of heroin are often so small they are easily hidden, but dogs can sniff them out.

The dog basically pays for itself, Corneliusen said, because the department receives funds as a result of the drug seizures it makes and the dogs help make the seizures.

The dogs are also used in neighboring communities to help police, Corneliusen said. The Aurora Police Department, for example, has no K-9 unit, so the officers go and assist several times a month.

The officers on the K-9 unit often apply years in advance for a spot on the team. They begin training in anticipation and in the hopes that they will one day be given a spot on the unit. That training is on their time and at their own personal expense.

Eric Muska was hired onto the force more than six years ago, he said. He will be getting a dog sometime in the spring of 2012.

“I grew up with dogs and I’ve always been partial to dogs,” Muska said. “When I was considering law enforcement as a career I thought about it [working on a K-9 unit].”

Chris Sherwin, who handles Sabek, said he was on the job with the department for five years and started training three years before a position on the unit opened up.

Once the officers are teamed up with a dog, the dog spends all of its time with the officer and, depending on the situation, the officer’s family. The dogs must be 100 percent obedient, 100 percent of the time, Sherwin said, adding that when the dogs aren’t working – which they love – they live good lives.

“He [Sabek] has a padded back seat, water, heat and he may work for 15 minutes or a few hours a day. He goes home and is treated like a king,” Sherwin said.

The dogs spend time at home with the officers and whether they get to laze around on the couch depends on the officer. The dogs are working animals and making sure they remain obedient is critical to their roles on the team. 

“The majority of our philosophy is our dogs don’t do stuff for treats,” Corneuliusen said. “But, they get rewarded with play, with toys. Everything is about a reward.”