A team of NYPD police dogs renowned for their bomb-detecting abilities has been sent to Paris for two weeks to safeguard Olympic athletes and spectators.
According to an NYPD official, the trip will be entirely funded by the French government and free of charge for New York City taxpayers. Information regarding the expedition, such as the number of dogs flown out and the amount paid for the trip by French authorities, was not immediately disclosed.
Mike Ritland, a former U.S. Navy SEAL canine trainer, described the NYPD canines as “one of the premiere K-9 units in the nation,” as Gothamist noted.
“If there is an explosive odor present, all the other odors disappear and the dog focuses on that,” Ritland said. “If you and I walk into a pizza restaurant, we smell pizza,” Ritland added. “When these dogs walk in, they smell not just every ingredient – but the preservative on the cheese.”
Ritland explained that a handler will usually work with a single dog for the whole of their career and will learn to recognize danger signs from the dog. If the dog detects a possible bomb, it would issue a “passive alert,” which would include sitting, downing, or remaining still. The dog will produce a “active alert,” such as barking or pawing, when it finds drugs or human remains.
According to Christopher Cappa, another veteran U.S. Navy SEAL canine handler and trainer, police and military hounds are trained to sniff out the smells of raw materials like TNT and ammonium nitrate in order to locate potential bombs.
With around 145 canines, the NYPD’s canine unit is the largest of any municipal police force. While it doesn’t frequently deploy its dogs abroad, a few of them did go to Haiti to assist with rescue efforts after the 2010 disaster.
