Drones can do many things a K-9 team cannot, according to James D. Daniels, a senior law enforcement training officer, special deputy and remote pilot with the Highland County (Ohio) Sheriffs’ Office.

Their aerial reconnaissance capabilities and thermal imaging technology can cover vast territories and detect heat signatures. “This allows drones to clear areas a K-9 cannot because of the environment they are in,” he says.

But police dogs also offer skills drones lack. Police K-9s excel in scent tracking and search operations on the ground.  

When drones and K-9s are used together, departments can capitalize on the capabilities of both, he adds. “Together, drones and K-9s can find a suspect or fugitive, locate a lost child or missing elderly person with dementia,” he says. “Drones can cover a lot of territory. K-9s can too. But together K-9s can work on the ground while drones look for heat signatures with thermal imaging and searching densely wooded areas from above.”

Drone overwatch can help direct K-9s to hidden suspects.

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IMAGE: James D. Daniels, Highland County Sheriffs’ Office

A Partnership Made for Police Work

Police dogs excel in scent tracking and search operations, covering vast terrains with their acute olfactory senses. However, Daniels says their effectiveness can be hindered in challenging environments or with limited visibility, especially in situations involving fugitives or missing persons.

Drones equipped with advanced thermal imaging cameras and aerial reconnaissance capabilities can assist by providing aerial overwatch to clear areas inaccessible to dogs. Thermal imaging technology can detect heat signatures, which helps spot concealed suspects or lost individuals even in dense foliage or low-light conditions

“Having a drone on-scene not only helps K-9s find the suspect, but it also records the entire arrest,” Daniels points out. “But that is just one way drones can be of benefit with K-9 teams.”

In very dense vegetation, it’s easy to get lost, especially when there’s no trail. “A thermal drone or a drone equipped with a search light can help K-9 teams find their way out and back to safety,” he says. “We did a debrief after one scenario, and the K-9 handler said if it wasn’t for the drone, they would have never gotten out of the woods.”

There’s also a safety aspect as drones can spot heat signatures that could come from a suspect, alert the K-9 team, and prevent an ambush. “Drones are a safety line for K-9 units,” he says. “We can warn teams ahead of time about a hidden suspect, cliffs, barbed wire fences covered with vegetation, or junk vehicles in their way. We can help clear the area before sending in an officer to deal with the threat."

The Need for Training

There are many ways the drone-K-9 partnership can be useful in law enforcement. However, without training together, these partnerships may be headed for trouble, Daniels warns.

“A drone flying around can sound like a swarm of bees, and that can make a dog antsy. If the dog is not used to the sound, it becomes a distraction and can affect how they work,” he says. “It is best to train together to get dogs used to the drone. We have to fly around the dog a lot to get them to the point where they ignore the noise and do their jobs.”  

A recurring issue for Daniels is the mismatched arrival times of K-9s and drones. He explains there are three ways canines and drones wind up working together.

1. The dogs are already there and tracking a scent when the drone operator shows up. “Now the drone operator has to play catch up and figure out where the dog is,” he says. “This requires them to be briefed on information when they arrive. That causes a problem because the drone operator is playing catch up.”

2. The drone is there first and starts doing overwatch, then the K-9 team shows up. The drone searches areas in and around buildings where the dog cannot search and scans rooftops or the beds of pickups, where someone is likely to hide. “In this scenario, we clear the area for the dogs,” he says. “But the K-9s have to play catchup and the handler has to be briefed when he arrives.”

3. Drones and K-9 teams arrive at the same time. “This is the ideal situation because we both arrive at the same time, get briefed together and set up a plan as to where the K-9s are going to go,” he says. “We also can clear open areas quicker than the K-9 can, so they are not wasting their time in an open field.”

The lack of training between drones and K-9s can also lead to situations where the drone operator lacks understanding about how police dogs work. “When a drone operator doesn’t know how a K-9 alerts, it can be an issue,” he says. “Their alerts can be very subtle or extremely aggressive. If you don’t know how the dog works, you will have no clue if they have found the object or the suspect and things like that.”

It also can be tough for a drone operator who is inexperienced with K-9 teams to stay alongside the dog in densely populated areas. “Sometimes even with thermal imaging cameras, the dog and the handler can be hard to find,” he says. “As an operator, I need to know how to set up the camera system to register the dog’s heat signature.”

How to Train Together

Meticulous training and coordination between handlers and operators are needed to integrate drones successfully into K-9 operations. Joint training exercises refine protocols and enhance collaboration between K-9 units and drone operators, according to Daniels.

Drone operators and K-9 teams should train in various scenarios to improve coordination between K-9 teams on the ground and drones in the air. These exercises foster trust and synergy between the two units, he says.

Daniels has seen the success of training together first hand as he’s worked with Capt. Matt Lundsford of the Preble County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Department. Lunsford and Daniels began working together a few years ago when Lundsford, who oversees the Southwest Regional K-9 Training Group, which meets monthly to train, asked him to bring his drone over on a K-9 training day.

Now Daniels tries to get there every month to familiarize the dogs with drones. He starts with a few simple exercises and then increases the difficulty.

“I’ll fly the drone at a low altitude so that it bothers the dogs a little bit,” he says. “We will put the dogs in a circle and hover the drone in the middle of the circle, take it to a higher altitude, then bring it back down. I may even move it back and forth in front of the dogs to get them used to it.”

Once dogs are comfortable with the drone, Daniels and Lunsford test teams with increasingly challenging scenarios. Daniels explains they train at Preble County Fairgrounds, which has a lot of buildings, wooded areas, a creek, open fields and parking lots.

“The area works out really well because we can have the K-9 follow a scent,” he says. “We will hide a person who is suited up or wearing a bite sleeve and then bring out the K-9 and the drone. We use training rifles, training pistols, and we have everyone go through the scenario just like they would in an actual scenario. There are no shortcuts.”

Daniels recommends that handlers use long leads because it makes it easier for the drones to follow K-9 teams from above. “When you have a dog running without a leash, it’s hard to keep up with them,” he says. “That’s also a training issue we need to work with.”

The effectiveness of training is seen when a drone operator can contact a K-9 handler and accurately report the location of a heat signature, resulting in the dogs heading in that direction. “I might say, ‘Hey I have a heat signature to your 9 o’clock’ and they might say, ‘the scent is taking us that way,'’” he says. “Then we wind up finding who or what we are looking for.”

Drones offer aerial reconnaissance capabilities and thermal imaging technology to cover vast territories and detect heat signatures. Police K-9s excel in scent tracking and search operations on the ground. But it is their synergy when working together that truly maximizes their potential. This synergy comes from meticulous training and coordination between handlers and operators. By conducting joint training exercises, law enforcement agencies can refine protocols, foster trust, and enhance collaboration between K-9 units and drone operators. Daniels concludes.