SAR 4

DOCUMENTATION (RECORDS):

The handler must document all three of these areas, trained, certified and reliable. All three of these areas are discoverable by the defense. As one recent court case stated, "A detection dog's training and certification records are discoverable by the defense. These materials at issue are crucial to defendant's ability to assess dog's reliability, a very important issue in his defense, and to conduct effective cross-examination of dog's handler."

There are computerized systems for documenting these three areas or documentation by hand is also adequate. What must be documented?

1. Training:

All of the initial training and maintenance training must be documented. The documentation must reflect the industry standard, about 208 to 416 hours of initial training and 4 hours per week, on average, of maintenance training.

TRAINING LOGS:
Emphasis should be on actual training, not on lengthy training logs. Training logs should contain these elements:
1) Date and total team training time;
2) The task, including length, aging, quantity, depth of find, etc.
3) Successful completion of the task.
4) If there is a performance issue with the team, immediate remedial training
shown be shown, followed by successful completion of the task.

Since there is no such thing as a perfect dog, it's acceptable to document a deficiency, to the standard, in a dog. However, you must document immediate remedial training, followed by successful completion to the standard.

2. Certification:

The yearly certification must be documented. That must also have the standard attached. You cannot certify, without a standard. If an in-house evaluator was used, that evaluator's training and experience must be documented.

3. Reliability:

Reliability can only come from both training and deployment records. Both training and deployment records must accurately reflect the reliability of the dog. Again, the courts do not expect the dog to be perfect. However, the training and deployment records must reflect the reliability of the dog. That reliability is determined by percentage. If the case goes to court, the handler must know the percentage of reliability of his dog.

Court Room Testimony

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