SHERIFF'S POLICE SUPPORT USING DOG DRUG PATROLS

Officers with the Cook County Sheriff's Department expressed support last
week for bringing drug-sniffing dogs into area schools, while Maine
Township High School District 207 continues to explore the concept.

Sgt. Robert Sapp and Lt. George Brown told residents attending a meeting of
the Maine Township Neighborhood Watch on April 5 that just knowing their
school has access to drug sniffing dogs is enough to keep students from
bringing drugs to school. Both officers said drug-sniffing dog programs
have worked well at schools in other areas of the county.

"The kids see these [dogs] and they get scared," Sapp said. "They've seen
enough [TV] shows to know that these dogs - if there's dope there - will
find it. It's a huge deterrence against kids bringing dope and leaving it
in school."

"It's one more tool in the tool bag of the good guys versus the bad guys,"
added Maine Township Trustee Peter Ryan.

"The buzz [at Maine South] is that things have cleaned up immensely" since
students heard drug-sniffing dogs were being discussed by the school
board," Ryan said.

The District 207 Board of Education has been debating whether to allow
canine teams - from police departments or private companies - to search
each of the district's three school buildings and lockers for drugs and
alcohol. Discussion was expected to continue at Monday night's school board
meeting, but has been postponed until the board's May 1 meeting.

Sapp believes drug dogs should be used in elementary schools as well as
high schools. He spoke of a search the Sheriff's Department conducted at
Mannheim Middle School in Melrose Park, where dogs were brought into the
building after school hours. The students saw the seven police squad cars
and the dogs waiting outside as they left for the day, and this left an
imprint in the students' minds, he said.

"In our schools today, children, juveniles 8 years old and above, are
selling drugs," Brown added.

"If it means bringing a dog [into schools] to help a child correct his
wrongful ways, then we should be doing those things," he said.