Last December the Cochrane Integrated Traffic Unit added a new member. She may be without a uniform, but Maggie is seen as an invaluable part of the traffic team.
Maggie, a chocolate Labrador retriever, works alongside her handler — one of the unit’s Mountie members — to detect drugs.
“Quite often there is more going on inside of a vehicle than you would think,” said Sgt. Dave Hardy of the traffic unit. “The dog is a huge investigational aid.”
Maggie jumps into action once an officer has reasonable suspicion that a vehicle may have narcotics on board, performing a free-air search around the perimeter of the vehicle in question. Only when the dog indicates there are drugs within the vehicle, can suspects be arrested and the vehicle searched.
“Our goal is to intercept contraband before it makes it into our community,” Hardy remarked. “Detection dogs, like Maggie, are trained to detect the majority of illegal substances.”
Before landing her gig in Cochrane, Maggie undertook extensive training at a facility in Innisfail, Alta. She was paired up with her handler in September and together they learned the fine art of detecting drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy.
Drug-detecting canines are trained based on a reward system.
When the dog picks up the scent of an illegal drug, the pooch is awarded with a favourite toy or playtime with their handler.
Maggie, in true retriever fashion, loves her ball.
Even while she’s on the job, the one-and-a-half-year-old lab has to keep her skills up.
While she may not spend her days in intense training, Hardy said small drills keep her nose in tune. Her handler will hide samples of narcotics, asking Maggie to sniff out the contraband and indicate when she’s found it.
While the hard-working pooch is always ready for deployment, she has yet to test her nose against a major drug seizure. But Hardy said it’s only a matter of time.
“The majority of drug seizures in Alberta utilize a drug-detecting dog,” he said. “Our officers may not be able to see the drugs or smell the drugs — but these dogs can.”
In 2013, more than $120 million in contraband was seized from vehicles travelling on Alberta highways.
