NEW DILLON POLICE DOG ON PATROL

Ronin Will Help Sniff Out Drugs During Dillon's Commercial Truck
Inspection Program

DILLON - On Ronin's first day working for the Dillon Police
Department, he helped confiscate 33 grams of marijuana and sent a
felon armed with a loaded AK-47 to jail.

Not bad for any police officer's first day, especially a
dog.

Ronin, a 17-month-old Labrador retriever, started with the police
department in early July filling the position left by Digger, a German
shorthaired pointer/Labrador mix who retired in March after 12 years
with the force.

Dillon Officer Neil Brown, who is Ronin's handler, said that in the
last month, Ronin has also assisted the police departments in Frisco
and Silverthorne, where he sniffed out almost 200 grams - or about
seven ounces - of marijuana, two live plants and some growing
equipment during a traffic stop.

Along with helping other jurisdictions, one of Ronin's primary duties
will be looking for narcotics during Dillon's commercial truck
inspections, a program started last spring that targets safety
violations in trucks traveling through the county.

"Obviously, I-70 is a major corridor for drug shipping across the
country so he'll be used to search the cargo and the truck itself,"
Brown said.

Truck inspection programs in other parts of the country utilize
drug-sniffing dogs to combat illegal narcotic transportation, which is
the goal with Ronin, said Dillon Police Chief John Mackey.

"We can't have the dog check every truck, you'd just burn him out, so
there would be other indicators," Mackey said. One potential indicator
for performing a drug search would come from a report on a driver or
truck's prior history that's available to inspectors.

Before Ronin started his duties in Dillon, he and Brown attended a
three-week training course in Kansas, where the two practiced
searching vans and buses for drugs.

"(Ronin) came trained from the Garfield County Sheriff, so it was more
me that needed to catch up with the dog," Brown said.

Dillon purchased Ronin from Garfield County for $1,500 after the
Dillon Town Council recommitted support for the police department's K9
program when Digger retired.