SUFFOLK, Va. — Dogs don't need to be taught how to smell. But they do need to learn what to sniff out.
Search and rescue dogs trained in bomb detection learn to identify the scent of explosives, rather than the actual bombs themselves. They're able to pick up the smell of materials like trinitrotoluene (TNT), gunpowder, dynamite and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). They can scan objects, areas and even people to detect the presence of potential hazards.
"Their noses are so much more sensitive than ours. They're [going to] find things that we would never be capable of identifying. They're [going to] see things with their noses that we're incapable of seeing ourselves as humans," said Suffolk Fire Marshal, Battalion Chief Chris Cornwell.
Suffolk Fire & Rescue recently welcomed a dog named Knox to its team. The one-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer arrived in the U.S. from Poland on May 3. Three days later, the department picked him up from Ventosa Kennel in Scotland Neck, North Carolina.
Knox will not only be the department's first explosive detection dog, but its first K-9 resource ever.
He comes to Suffolk after 19 bomb threats across the city last year. That's a nearly 50% jump in reports from 2022 when there were 13 reports. It's a spike from 2020 when the city averaged just four bomb threats for the entire year.
"We have to treat each [bomb threat] as if it were an actual emergency with a full response and a K-9 resource to sweep the buildings and deem them safe before we can allow occupants to reenter the space," Fire Marshal Cornwell said. "The uptick has justified and warranted the need for this type of resource in our toolbox."
Most of the city's bomb threats were against schools. First responders have been called to eight bomb threats this school year alone. Arrests were made in all but one case, and each report turned out to be a false alarm.
Fire Marshal Cornwell noted that threats are often the result of kids and teens succumbing to pressure from their peers to pull a prank.
"We do want to get that message out there that [bomb threats] are very serious matters. We take them very seriously. They do come with pretty harsh penalties,"he said. "And we will find you with phone records and everything else, satellites and all kinds of stuff that we can [use] to track you down."
While he's happy with the department's track record in closing bomb threat cases, the fire marshal said that doesn't change the impact of these incidents on students and their school day.
"Having to wait on mutual aid resources to respond from other jurisdictions outside of our city is time-consuming," Fire Marshal Cornwell said. "And it causes delays, for example, when we respond to our school system, the amount of time and learning loss that's caused as a result of the school having to be evacuated."
The fire marshal said there will still be a need to utilize outside resources for larger structures like schools, but having Knox on the team could substantially change his team's response process — allowing them to allocate resources more effectively.
"Having these resources within our jurisdiction will aid us in expediting the deeming of those structures safe so that we can get the students back into the school buildings more expeditiously and decrease that learning loss," Fire Marshal Cornwell said.
Knox started explosive detection training with his new handler on May 7 and will continue for twelve weeks. He's expected to be sworn in and report for duty in August — right around his second birthday on Aug. 5.
Fire Marshal Cornwell said Knox is also expected to perform duties in public education, community outreach and critical incident stress management. He will also assist neighboring departments when needed.
"Much like we have depended on these other municipalities for mutual aid all these years, he's also available as a resource to them now that we have him as well," Fire Marshal Cornwell said.
The Suffolk Police Department also recently welcomed a new dog named Atlas. He is an additional K-9 resource to the department and will train in explosive detection and patrol.
Both dogs were brought to Suffolk using funds from the city's Traffic Enforcement Cameras program.