Spotlight On: Go Dog Go: Man’s Best Friend Still Vital to St. Charles County Police

At first-all they had to go on was a shoe.

Nobody yet knew that the missing teenaged girl had fallen down an elevator shaft at a construction site nearby.

It was June 9, 2018, a Saturday afternoon. She had been missing since Friday night. Her friends told police they were coming back from a Post Malone concert, and got into an argument, so she got out of the car on a strip mall parking lot near a fitness club. That's where her shoe was found.

Looking at the shoe the next day, police feared she may have been pulled into a stranger's car.

Some 50 officers on foot were looking for her. A police drone searched overhead. But there was no sign of her. It was hot and there had been thunderstorms that day.

A Dog Named Tank Arrives
Police called in Tank, a tracking hound and member of the St. Charles County Police K-9 Unit.

His handler was Officer Courtney Spiess.

"So, Tank took one sniff of the shoe, and we tracked around the parking lot, past a couple businesses, down some stairs, along a little grassy field and he pulled me onto a construction site," Spiess says.

Tank tugged forward, nose the ground, pulling Spiess along on a tight leash.

They came to a construction site, just a floor and the skeleton of a hotel with a few beams and an elevator shaft.

"She was laying at the bottom and there was no way she was going to be able to get out. If it wasn't for Tank leading us to her… It was a holiday weekend, too," Spiess says. "So the construction worker would've found her on a Tuesday morning."

Tank would go on to save 13 lives and track down 31 criminal suspects before retiring in 2023.

It's just one example of how the County Police K-9 Unit, which now has eight dogs, helps find lost people, sniff out narcotics, check for explosives, and even uncover hidden electronics that may contain cyber crime evidence.

A Dog Named Charlie and Probable Cause
"We help the drug unit quite a bit doing traffic stops," says K-9 Unit Supervisor Sgt. Mark Thomas. "Once near a Wentzville mobile home park, the drug unit pulled over a Ford Explorer. Charlie was there."

Charlie is a Dutch Shepherd, able to find hidden narcotics. When he finds something, he's trained to sit down or lie down on the spot.

"The individuals refused to consent to a search during the traffic stop," Thomas says. "So, we deployed Charlie, and he alerted near the passenger side of the vehicle inside the car. Without Charlie, we wouldn't have been able to search that vehicle, because the dog can give us probable cause to search.

"We ended up finding more than a pound of methamphetamine hidden in a cooler on the passenger floor. Those drugs were going to be distributed to the neighborhood right where we live."

The current K-9 Unit team of dogs and handlers is responsible for seizing a heap of narcotics:

• 50kg of methamphetamine
• 26kg of cocaine
• 20kg of Fentanyl
• 10kg of Heroin

Meet the Dogs
At first, they just look like pets, but the members of the K9 Unit are all highly trained with different skills:

• Charlie, a Dutch Shepherd-tracking, narcotics, and suspect apprehension
• Rowdy, a Belgian Malinois-tracking, narcotics, and suspect apprehension
• Jack, a Belgian Malinois-tracking, narcotics, and suspect apprehension
• Ari, a Hanoverian Hound-narcotics, tracking lost people
• Maverick, a Black Labrador-works narcotics and tracking
• Spirit, a German Shorthaired Pointe-explosive detection
• Millie, a Black Labrador-therapy dog for schools and hospitals
• Chili, a Yellow Labrador-therapy dog for schools and hospitals

More than 120 people have been located by the current K9 Teams-some lost, some missing, and some suspects of crime.

Ambassadors on Four Legs
The dogs are also seen at local schools, helping create a bond with students who might not stop to visit with a school resource officer without a dog.

"They are helping make friends," Thomas says. "It's that positive interaction with the public. They're a good reflection of the police department.

Cyber Crime Dog
One of the most famous dogs on the force in the past decade has been Bonnie, a Yellow Labrador who helped fight child exploitation.

"It was very prevalent for these individuals with child pornography to store it on the images on cell phones, thumb drives, SD cards-very small devices," Thomas says. "It's important during a search warrant for Bonnie to get there and do secondary search. The big stuff obviously the police can find. But finding the small devices under a carpet or behind a wall fixture-Bonnie could do that."

Bomb Sniffing Dog
The Department's bomb-sniffing dog is Spirit, a German Shorthaired Pointer, who helps protect large crowd venues from explosives and can investigate suspicious packages.

"Spirit works primarily at the City Park soccer stadium before and during every event," Thomas says. "She sweeps the buses, the loading docks, locker rooms, and then sniffs around as people are entering."

Helping Other Departments
The County Police K-9 Unit has become so well respected that it now trains police dogs for surrounding municipalities including Wentzville, Lake Saint Louis, and Cottleville.

Thomas, who is a Master Trainer, says it's a good way for area police and the dogs to work together. This has been a big help on the auto theft task force and drug units.

"If we call one of these dogs, we already know how they're trained and what their capabilities are," Thomas says.

Chief Keeps Dog Treats in His Desk
During a recent interview, Chief Kurt Frisz got a visit from one of the dogs and gave her a treat from his desk drawer.

"I'm very proud of our K-9 Unit," Frisz says. "The performance they do day in and day out. The resources that they provide to help our officers keep the community safe, finding missing people or a suspect at large, all of that is in the spirit of keeping our community safe. And our team of K-9 Handlers and K-9s are just fantastic."

The Chief added that they always come to work in a good mood.

Editor's note: This article is part of a series celebrating the upcoming 10-year anniversary of the St. Charles County Police Department.

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