SAN ANTONIO – The Bexar County Sheriff's Office currently has seven working K-9 deputies, but only one of them works exclusively inside the jail.
Largo, a 9-month-old German Shepherd, and his handler, Cpl. Carlos Lopez, have one important job: find drugs smuggled inside the county lock-up.
On a recent operation, a team of detention officers and deputies entered a housing unit inside the jail to conduct a surprise shakedown. The operation is known as a Contraband, Health and Sanitation Inspection, or CHSI, and gives jailers an opportunity to search for weapons and other contraband hidden by inmates in their cells. Lopez and K-9 Largo follow along to search for drugs.
On one CHSI, Largo didn't find any real drugs in the housing unit, but he did detect a synthetic drug training aid planted by Lopez inside a roll of toilet paper. The training aid gives Largo the satisfaction of knowing he was successful and helps Lopez continue Largo's training.
"It shows me his body language and what I'm looking for," Lopez said.
When Largo detects the training aid or real narcotics, he is rewarded with plenty of verbal praise and his favorite toy, a rubber Kong.
"He finds it, he gets rewarded. He gets paid," Lopez said. "He gets really happy, then all of a sudden, it becomes a huge game to him and that's what he wants to do. He's like, 'Oh, this is the game. We're going to find narcotics.' Take away his toy and all of a sudden, he wants that toy back so he goes into a hunt mode, and it's really fun to see him work."
Largo was born in Poland, where his training began as a puppy. He mainly responds to commands in Czech, which makes it more difficult for inmates to try to communicate with Largo or distract him from his mission, but it doesn't stop them from trying.
During the CHSI, several inmates could be heard making cat sounds and whistling at Largo in an effort to distract him. Thanks to his specialized training to work in a jail environment, the chaotic sounds of inmates pounding on cell doors and screaming doesn't affect Largo's ability to do his job.
"When you get the dog, he's hearing sights, sounds, smells, noises and you have the inmates trying to distract him, but with all the training we've done, he doesn't mind," Lopez said. "He doesn't even know what's going on. All he wants to do is his job."
Since joining the Sheriff's Office in February, Largo has conducted 80 searches of the jail, including five individual housing units. He has one confirmed find, which was a small amount of cocaine located in an inmate's cell a few weeks ago.
Sheriff Javier Salazar is a big fan of the jail's K-9 team. He wants to add two more to increase security in the jail and keep drugs out.
"While we're thankful we haven't found a whole lot of narcotics, we have found narcotics, which just goes to show there is a need for that service," Salazar said. "It's unfortunate that it's something that happens. If you've got a jail, you've got this as an issue. If you're not doing anything about it, that's one thing, but here we're doing something about it and we're going to try to keep building on that program as much as needed."
Salazar said just having Largo working in the jail serves as a deterrent because inmates never know when he may show up for a random search.
"I'll be honest. It's more of a psychological effect. Sometimes, we walk the dog into the unit and then walk right back out without searching anything. Sometimes we walk in and we do a more thorough search," Salazar said. "We like to keep them guessing. We have to keep them guessing, and we're OK with that."
Largo doesn't just check cells for drugs, he also searches the entire Sheriff's Administration building to make sure employees aren't smuggling anything into the facility. Even the sheriff isn't immune to a random visit from Largo.
"Many times, we won't know when they're going to conduct an operation here within the administrative offices," Salazar said. "If I come into work in the morning and the dog is working my office, I just won't go in there until Largo is done."
With Largo on patrol, Salazar has a warning for anyone planning to sneak drugs into his jail.
"We've got a variety of teams whose job it is to seek you and your contraband out and bring you to justice, and K-9 Largo is just the first line of defense in that."
WEB EXTRA:
This is no ordinary day at the park! The grounds of the Boy Scouts of America Alamo Area Council regularly become training grounds not for scouts but for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office K-9 team. The dogs and their handlers showed KSAT how they get in a little play time before they get to work fighting crime.
