A SNIFFING SLEUTH

GREENSBORO -- A drug-sniffing police dog? On a university campus?
This pooch may have its work cut out for it.

UNCG police welcomed its first four-legged officer to the force last
month. Now in training, Aja, a German shepherd bred overseas, should
be ready for duty by fall semester.

The dog and her handler, Sgt. David Combs, spend four days each week
in north Greensboro with K9 officers from the city police department.
So far, so good, said Combs, a 16-year veteran of the campus force.

"It takes a lot of patience to train them," he said last week,
watching as Aja tore across a vacant lot in a new subdivision,
scouring the ground for a pair of pliers tossed a dozen yards away as
"evidence."

The sniffing sleuth spotted the tool. She scooped it in her jaws,
trotted back to her handler and waited for the reward: a rubber ball
pulled from Combs' pocket.

"The dog learns to associate the ball with the smell of narcotics or
the items in the woods that are lost," Combs said later. "She doesn't
want the drugs. She doesn't want the item. She wants the ball. If she
doesn't find any drugs, she doesn't get a reward."

Police officials said last week that Aja won't be used to randomly
patrol the dorms. In balancing public safety with personal privacy,
the school tips the scale toward privacy -- for now -- though they
want to use the dog in other investigations: for example, at DWI
checkpoints, to track criminals who rob students on campus or who
"jump and run" from a traffic stop, and at public events.

But don't think Aja will never show in the dorms, UNCG police Maj.
Jamie Herring said.

If officers investigate claims of drugs in a particular room, the dog
will be called in to help.

"Instead of the officer tearing up the room, it's easier to bring the
dog in to find it," Herring said.

Aja arrived two months after a widely publicized dormitory shooting,
where three men, including the son of N.C. State men's basketball
coach Sidney Lowe, face charges in the drug-related attempted robbery.

Police officers said their proposal to buy the dog was submitted
before the shooting. But officers think any opposition to its
purchase within the administration evaporated after the attack.

Final approval for the dog was given a week later.

"I think had there been any opposition to it, from elsewhere in the
university, after that and Virginia Tech, people started to see we
need the proper tools to react to crimes," Herring said.

The police department budgeted $12,000 for the startup costs of the
unit, including the dog itself, its kennel, its food and its vet
bills for the first year. Herring said additional dogs may be
considered after officers evaluate Aja's performance.

UNCG's police force isn't the first at a North Carolina university to
use dogs. N.C. A&T police started dog patrols in 2003, and UNC-Chapel
Hill police launched its own unit six months later.

Chapel Hill's dog specializes in explosive detection.

"It'll help deter drugs at the university," Combs said. "Even if we
don't catch someone with drugs, just seeing the dog and knowing
there's a dog on campus, it'll deter people from bringing drugs on campus.

"I think she'll do a lot more with deterrence than she will with
finding stuff. And that's a good thing."