BY STEVEN JUPITER
BRANDON—Brandon Police Officer Aiden Alnwick and his K-9 partner, Guinness, recently graduated from the Narcotics Detection School run by the Orange County (NY) Sheriff’s Office. Completion of the two-month program allows Ofc. Alnwick to use Guinness in searches for drugs, specifically cocaine, methamphetamines, ecstasy, heroin, and fentanyl.
“We had a lot of fun during the class,” said Ofc. Alnwick. “It’s a game for the dogs, almost like hide-and-seek. When he finds an odor of one of the drugs, he alerts by exhibiting a change of behavior…usually it’s sniffing an area intensely and then sitting, and then he gets his toy.”
Ofc. Alnwick and Guinness will attend a 16-week Patrol School program at the same academy in March. This additional training will teach Alnwick and Guinness how to work together to track, recover evidence, and apprehend criminals.
