Sheriff’s department has new drug, apprehension canine officer

The Union County Sheriff’s Department has a new deputy that can do things no other deputy can. He is Caesar, a specially-trained canine.

Caesar is a two-year-old Belgian Malanois who has been in training since he was about eight months old.

Deputy Chris Whiteside is his handler and spent two weeks of 12-hour days learning how to work with Caesar.

“He came from the Little Rock Canine Academy,” Whiteside said. He added that while he was there officers from all around the country were there being trained to work with their canines.

Sheriff Jimmy Edwards asked for the new canine because their current dog, Dutch, was getting old and having some health problems. “It’s time for him to retire,” Edwards said, but noted that Dutch had more than paid for himself many times over and he hopes Caesar will do as well.

Supervisors have vote for the retired Dutch to be officially owned by his handler, Adam Fitts.

Acquiring and training Caesar cost about $11,000, but none of that was from taxpayers’ money. It all came from seized drug funds.

Edwards said that might seem expensive but that during his career Dutch may have brought as much as a million dollars in, since one drug case alone involved $600,000 and another was $200,000.

Caesar is certified in narcotics detection and patrol, which includes search, apprehension and tracking.

Although Caesar looks a bit smaller than a German Shepherd, Edwards said he has no trouble taking down an armed adult and is not startled by gunfire. The breed is known for having a bite-and-hold-on nature making them good for law enforcement.

He is trained to give a passive alert when he finds something, which Edwards said is better than the older method in which dogs scratched or pawed. In some cases people complained that a canine damaged their vehicle as a result.

“Most can work until they are 10 or 11 years old,” Edwards said of the breed. “They don’t have the hip problems some others do.”

In addition to patrolling, Whiteside said he will take Caesar to schools, career days and senior citizens programs. Like many law enforcement canines, Caesar has been trained with commands in a foreign language. Sometimes that is because the dogs are trained overseas but it also makes it unlikely the canine could pick up on an inadvertent or wrong command.

But although Caesar will live with Whiteside and family, he is not a pet. “You have to bond with him, but he is not a pet. He is a working dog,” Whiteside said.

And after watching Caesar for a few minutes it becomes clear that he is not only intelligent, but very high energy and can become bored quickly.

“He can be aggressive but is not aggressive by nature,” Edwards said.

Caesar has a special compartment in Whiteside’s patrol vehicle and the deputy makes sure he has plenty of water and adequate breaks outside the vehicle. The SUV has a special alarm that sounds if the temperature gets too high or low for the dog’s safety. Before the alarms were available, some canines died from heat exhaustion in the summer when the engine and air conditioning quit and the deputy was not aware of it. Whiteside said they obviously don’t want that to happen.

Caesar was not the Union County department’s first choice but Edwards said they are happy with him. “We looked at another dog but he did not qualify,” Edwards said. “All beagles don’t run rabbits. They have to have pretty high energy. A canine could be a good dog but not have that drive.”

The earlier canine apparently did not have the drive that Caesar does.

Caesar and Whiteside must be recertified every year in order for court convictions to hold up.

But for now he and partner Chris will be on patrol together on a routine basis, not just in special situations.