Sheriff’s K-9 officers give demo to Mount Carmel Students
'There are narcotics in every single high school in the county'
Students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Asbury Park got a demonstration from Monmouth County Sheriff’s Officer Kurt Kroeper and his narcotics detection dog Evan Tuesday.
The demonstration educated students and faculty of the school on the tasks the K-9 team is responsible for.
The students were split into two separate groups, an early morning session for Kindergarten through fifth-graders and a later presentation for sixth through eighth-graders. For the younger students, Kroeper explains there is a difference between good drugs that doctors prescribe and bad drugs that are illegal. Older students get more of an in-depth explanation of drugs and their prevalence in schools within Monmouth County.
“There are narcotics in every single high school in the county, and in the state,” Kroeper said.
Evan, a 5-year-old Labrador Retriever, located a bag of heroin Kroeper hid in the schools multi-purpose room. Evan is trained certified to detect seven different narcotics scents, including heroin and marijuana.
“His single purpose is narcotics only — he will not bite,” said Kroeper. ” Other dogs in the K-9 unit are German Shepards who are trained to bite if prompted.”
At present, the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit consists of five K-9 handlers and their dogs. They include one narcotic detection team, two explosive detection teams, one narcotic patrol team and one explosive patrol team.
Two additional dogs are being trained and Kroeper will soon add a Bloodhound to the unit who will be trained to locate missing persons, he said.
Kroeper also made a plea to students in the upper grades that will move on to the high school level next year not to start doing drugs if their peers ask them to.
“People that get addicted to bad things feel isolated and they know they are doing the wrong thing, that is why they seek other people to do it with them,” he said. “Please don’t do it.”
[Photo at top: Sheriff’s Officer Kurt Kroeper introduces students to Evan, a narcotics detection dog with the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office.]
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