DEMONSTRATION WITH POLICE DOGS GETS POINT ACROSS TO STUDENTS

Shooter, a Labrador retriever, and Ron and Bomber, two German shepherds,
trained to detect drugs and explosive chemicals, and their deputy handlers
did detective work in front of over 300 students assembled in the Potts Camp
gym to promote drug and bomb threat awareness.

Officers said it was the largest crowd they have provided a demonstration
for in the county. Principal Michael McNeece said the Potts Camp School does
not have a serious drug problem yet. "We have enough of it that this is
justified," McNeece said. "We know drugs aren't just in big cities.

They are in small-town, rural Marshall County." Drug dog handler Lt. Kelly
McMillen and deputy Steve Gurley, handler of the bomb dog, didn't mince
words in bluntly telling students what happens when a police dog does a
criminal apprehension. "Basically, we are getting the point across about
drug activity and alcohol and bomb threats and we will explain the
penalties," said McMillen before opening remarks. Officers will go to
schools again during drug awareness week. Before the dogs were put to work
locating drugs or explosives planted within the gym by the deputies,
McMillen told students not to take their comments personally. "It's strictly
business," he said. "We are trying to get a point across.

It's not just the kids. The world is hard and everybody in here has a role
to play." McMillen and Gurley showed students what they are able to do with
drug sniffing and bomb sniffing dogs. Ron and Shooter are trained to detect
seven illegal drugs.

Bomber is trained to find concealed explosives. Students were also
introduced to Smith and Wesson, the two sides of McMillen's handcuffs. "Once
the cuffs are on, my job is finished and the juvenile detention center takes
over the case and arranges a court date," McMillen said. A graduate of Potts
Camp High School, McMillen urged students to take responsibility seriously
and admitted that as a high school student he was slow to appreciate the
importance of setting a standard for himself and looking for a direction in
life. "I'll tell you what I should have done. I should have gone into the
military," he said. McMillan is a graduate of the Mississippi law
enforcement academy and has worked with the Marshall County Sheriff's
Department on and off for about seven years. "When you go home, remember we
tried to save someone's life," McMillen said. "There will be one person here
today who will say, 'I've got to wake up.' "Our country is in a crisis right
now. Gas prices are going up and there is trouble overseas," Gurley said.
"Anything can happen over here. We are free. If I can save a person's life
I'll do it. We are not your future, you are our future." Gurley asked how
many students had chores to do after school. "Every one in here should have
something to do when you get home," he admonished. "Your folks are working
and you are not doing anything." Gurley and McMillen, with the cooperation
of assistant principal Jerry Martin, put on a "mock" bomb threat to show
students what happens when a person leaves a written bomb threat at school.
"There was a bomb threat at a local factory," Gurley continued. "It took two
weeks to trace the call. It was from an employee who shut down a plant
because he didn't want to go to work that day." The officers then
demonstrated what happens when a dog hits on a car carrying concealed drugs
or explosives. Ron and Shooter searched among a set of wooden boxes arranged
on the gym floor until they found the box with marijuana hidden inside by
the deputies.

Later, Bomber located an explosive material officers hid inside a wall
closet on the gym floor. During the presentation, McMillen and Gurley posed
questions and responded to questions from students. He warned students about
riding in the car with someone drinking or drugging.

About 90 percent of the crosses with flowers on the roadsides and highways
are placed there because alcohol and/or drugs were involved in a fatality at
the location, McMillen said. The remaining 10 percent of the crosses are
there because of speeding, he said. "There is a name on these crosses.

They represent somebody's life and not all of them are a driver.

Some of them represent passengers," McMillen said. He told students people
do actually care about them. "Some of you all will make it, some of you will
barely make it and some of you won't make it," McMillen said. "Don't be one
of those folks who didn't know what life is all about because they didn't
listen." Deputy David Cook said the sheriff's department goes to schools to
help the student who might otherwise go astray. "If you catch them at this
age, you might get a point across to them while they are young," he said.
The police dogs are brought to the United States from Czechoslovakia and
Holland. Dog handlers have to learn German commands and adapt to the dog.
The dog lives with the trainer and is loyal and protective of his trainer.
Prices for dogs like Bomber, Shooter and Ron can go as high as $25,000,
officers said. The dogs, usually German Shepherds, can weigh between 80 and
90 pounds and are taught criminal apprehension. Cook was asked how law
enforcement officials know if they got a point across with students.

He said community feedback usually comes from the parents who talk with
deputies sometimes at school events such as ball games. "You don't get to
see the enthusiasm here in the demonstration as you do when the kids get
home and talk to their parents," said Cook. "At a ball game when we revisit
the schools we get our thank yous." The deputies also make demonstrations
for church groups, community functions and for clubs.

In the last two years the dogs have worked five bomb threats calls.