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| CBS News photo |
At Thursday night's Common Council Economic Development Committee meeting, John "Duke" Duchessi, who handles grant writing and administration at the Hudson Development Corporation, spoke of applying for a grant to acquire a K-9 Unit for the Hudson Police Department--specifically, a bomb-sniffing dog. It was unclear if the perceived need for a bomb-sniffing dog originated with the HPD (Duchessi said something about a hazards assessment) or was inspired by there being federal money currently available for such things.
Truly a case here of the tail wagging the dog...if there's really a perceived enforcement need for a bomb-sniffing dog, isn't there one Hudson could share, instead of tilting at windmills...?
ReplyDeleteMaybe a grant should be written to educate the HPD how to both give and get respect so no more incidents like what happened at the Half Moon will occur in our town.
ReplyDeleteWhen was the last time, if ever, there was a bomb threat in Hudson that such a dog would have been useful and proved to be a wise investment?
ReplyDeleteCan a bomb-sniffing dog do double duty as a drug-sniffing dog?
ReplyDelete-- Jock Spivy
Good question. The answer is no. According to Duke Duchessi, dogs cannot be cross-trained. Either they're trained to locate drugs or they're trained to locate explosives.
DeleteA drug sniffing dog might be more useful to Hudson.
Delete-- Jock Spivy
we will need a bomb dog trained officer. who will pay for this training? will this training interfere with regular work hours? will other officers have to pick up his duties during training? who gets the bomb dog? will we need a designated bomb dog patrol car? does the chief even want a bomb dog? can we just get the bomb dog money and spend it two years later on the senior center or do we actually get a real dog?
ReplyDeleteWe had the experience when obtaining our insurance liability, which is a must when getting a City of Hudson mass gathering permit, for the Hudson Music Festival to add a "terrorism" rider.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest threats to outdoor festivals is extreme weather. What can we do in case of emergency to help protect ourselves? From any threat?
Any city that puts all of its eggs in the (one) tourism basket might want insurance against its sudden loss. Look at what happened to Las Vegas.
ReplyDeleteThe Columbia County Sheriff's website indicates that they have three K-9 units: two trained for narcotics detection and one, Kira, trained to detect explosive materials. In the limited instances where the City would need such services, I would think that the County could provide such services, particularly if an MOU existed ahead of time. I would think that the proximity of the Sheriff's Office to the City would allow for acceptable response times. Similarly, the State Police are well-equipped and regularly fulfill this role for communities with limited resources. I wonder if the new police chief knows anybody in that organization?
ReplyDeleteCan we obtain a K-9 that sniffs out BS? That might come in very handy.
ReplyDelete