Congratulations to the 2010 award recipients.
Handler of the Year - Mike Musa & K9 Bronco
Rookie Handler of the Year - Ryan McNally & K9 Diesel
Meritorious Article Find - Michael Ashbeck & K9 Dutch
Meritorious Narcotics Find - Craig Orlowski & K9 Kyra
Meritorious Track - Rose Douglas & K9 Martie
Meritorious Track w/ Apprehension - Brian Biwer & K9 Utrix
Meritoirious Apprehension - Eric Guse & K9 Boomer
Each year WLECHA recognizes the efforts and successes of canine teams for their actions. We accept nominations for the individual awards which are due
August 15th of each year for the October conference.
From V.P. Chris Deakin
Here are some criteria and guidelines for WLECHA Awards and what kind of things the awards committee looks at when picking winners. Hopefully some of the criteria info will help with nominating for appropriate categories. If a nomination is submitted incorrectly for a category I will put it in appropriate category and then will notify the nominator. Don't double dip nominations. If you submit a track with apprehension nomination, don't submit it for Meritorious K-9 Track. If you find an article on a track, submit it for either Meritorious K-9 Track or for Meritorious Article Find. Don't submit it for both. The only time it is permissible to submit it for both is K-9 Handler of the Year or K-9 Rookie Handler of the Year. Very important note here: A nomination is only as good as it is written. In the past some nominations did not win because they were so poorly written by the nominator. They lacked details and clarity. The selection committee cannot read into the nominations information that is not presented. Don't get me wrong, I don't want people submitting nominations that run on endlessly page after page. Be precise and clear as to what occurred when writing a nomination and list the important details. DO NOT SUBMIT ENTIRE REPORTS AS A NOMINATION. Remember your fellow WLECHA members volunteer to be on the awards committee and they don't want to be reading nominations for 3-5 hours. Enough said. Also make sure you get the awards in on time which is posted on nomination form. I will not accept late nominations. Trust me, my own department submitted a late nomination years ago on a hidden compartment find which netted $645,000 out of a vehicle and I did not accept it. BE ON TIME WITH NOMINATIONS. I don't like to be the bad guy, but every year someone calls wanting me to allow a late entry in, but I won't do it. If you are trying to wait till the last minute for the big find or apprehension and submit late I will not accept it. Its the only fair way to do it.
The categories for awards are Handler of the Year, Rookie Handler of the Year, Meritorious Apprehension, Meritorious Track with Apprehension, Meritorious Track, Meritorious Narcotic Find, and Meritorious Article Find. Below are descriptions of each award.
Award Nomination Form
K-9 Handler of the Year
Things considered are the past years performance of the K-9 team. Things such as number of apprehensions and the kinds of apprehensions. Successful tracks with apprehensions or locating and following tracks successfully that can be confirmed by witnesses or can be confirmed by further follow-up. Locating articles and how difficult the searches were. Narcotics finds and how difficult the finds were. Its not always about the size of the find. but the difficulty of the find. Committee members look at if finds were located based on a handlers self initiated activity. To sum it up, it is about the whole body of work for the K-9 team for the year.
K-9 Rookie handler of the Year
Basically similar to K-9 Handler of the Year but is for new handlers with under one year of experience. Some handlers get nominated but may have only been working their dogs for several months. They may win based on how much success they've had in that short period of time as apposed to a new handler who has had his or her dog for closer to a year, but they have not accomplished very much. How committed and how hard has new the handler worked with their new partner.
Meritorious K-9 Apprehension
This award covers building searches, area searches, perimeter work, swat calls, high risk stops and any other type of apprehension you might have. The biggest misconception with this award is that the dog has to have a bite on a suspect to qualify. This is TOTALLY FALSE! An apprehension is the K-9 locating a suspect and the suspect being taken into custody. The apprehension could possibly end up being a bite, but in reality we locate and arrest suspects numerous times and no bite occurs. The K-9 might locate a suspect in a high find, a dumpster, hiding underground in an unseen culvert, hiding behind a door, inside of a vehicle or any in a wide variety and assortment of hiding spots. Apprehensions should not be judged solely on whether a bite has occurred. Criteria looked at is what type of crime was committed, location of hiding suspect, how difficult was the search or possibly weather conditions enter in to it. Generally its the all around circumstances involving the apprehension. I know in the past selection committee members felt that some bite apprehensions were inappropriate based on the type of crime committed or based on the handler making a poor deployment decision. These types of nominations did not win based on facts presented to the committee members in the nomination.
Meritorious K-9 Track with Apprehension
Criteria looked at is the difficulty of track, terrain and surface changes, weather conditions, length of track, evidence or witnesses located and if suspect was apprehended. Again apprehension does not necessarily mean a bite has occurred. The suspect has to be located and taken into custody either by the K-9 team or possibly by the perimeter as the K-9 team was tracking the suspect. Tracks followed in snow generally aren't given the same weight as a track followed on dirt, grass, wooded areas, residential areas or hard surface for obvious reasons.
Meritorious K-9 Track
Many track with apprehensions get submitted here in this category, but they do not belong here. Many of the above mentioned criteria in track with apprehension are considered here, but no suspect is taken into custody. Things looked at are, was the suspect or missing persons track correctly followed. This might be confirmed by witnesses located while on the track or by information obtained by your follow-up or that of your detectives that can confirm you were on right track. If you located evidence or articles while tracking the suspect or missing person, then this is the correct category your track should be nominated for. Important note: This is the appropriate category for search and rescue tracks with or without a find on a missing or suicidal person. This applies to search and rescue dogs as well as patrol dogs tracking for missing subjects.
Meritorious K-9 Narcotics Find
Criteria considered can include size of the find(large or small), difficulty of the find, where find located, was there prior knowledge of the possibility of narcotics being hidden in area to be sniffed or was the find located based solely on the K-9 team and the handlers own initiative with no prior knowledge of where narcotics might be located. The size of the find or amount of currency located does not have to be large to win. Yes we all want that huge find, but many times a small quantity of dope located in a very difficult location is a much better find than 10 kilos in an easy to locate find. Finds might be in vehicles, buildings, outside area, luggage, parcels or lockers. Anywhere a find might be located.
Meritorious K-9 Article Find
Criteria considered are where article was located, how tough area was to search, difficulty of find, duration of search, weather conditions, terrain, how busy the area of the search was at time of search or any other condition at time of search. Committee members should not consider what type of article is located. A crucial piece of evidence is a crucial piece of evidence, whether it is a weapon or if is an article of clothing, burglary tool or anything that can tie a suspect to a crime. Any size article can be important to a crime.
