The Cambria County Drug Task Force K-9 Unit was created in 1999 in order to
address the problem of illegal drugs in the county´s schools and to give the task force
a powerful tool to fight drugs on the street. The program began as a partnership
with the Johnstown Police Department´s K-9 Unit and has since helped many other local
Police Departments start K-9 Units of their own.
One of the K-9 Units proudest achievements has been the design and creation of
a highly-effective school locker drug search program. School district concerns over
privacy standards and potential liability meant that any program that brings drug search
dogs into schools had to be carefully crafted. The result is a program that works like
this: If school administrators suspect that a drug problem exists they call the K-9 Unit.
Dogs and detectives arrive unannounced at a time known only to administrators. With
students locked down in classrooms, K-9 Unit dogs patrol the hallways sniffing lockers
for drugs. If one dog reacts, a second is brought in to confirm the presence of drugs
inside the locker. Detectives never open a locker or learn the identity of the student
using it. Instead, the numbers of suspect lockers are collected and turned over to school
administrators who then deal with the student suspects and their parents as the school sees
fit.
