Officers put newest police dog on the trail of drugs

By Jean Reid Norman

Monday, Sept. 21, 2009 | 1:55 a.m.

In December 2007, Boulder City Police officer Alan Nutzman made the traffic stop of his young career. Responding to a call about a suspicious car that had just been at the AutoZone on U.S. 93, he pulled the vehicle over a few miles later on U.S. 95.

In the trunk was a spare tire holding almost $550,000 in suspected drug money. Nutzman, as the responding officer, got the job of writing hours worth of reports and spending hours more filing evidence.

This year, he and the police force have been seeing the payoff of those hours. While no drugs were found in the vehicle, the cash was never claimed. The department was able to confiscate more than $400,000, which it has been using to add equipment such as license plate readers and specialized vehicles.

And Charlie. The black Labrador retriever is Boulder City’s new drug-sniffing dog, and Nutzman, who now has 4 1/2 years on the force, is his new trainer. They join officer Paul Daly, who has been Boulder City’s sole K-9 officer for eight years, and his two dogs, Quest and Barry.

Charlie joined the force June 10, and Nutzman began training with him June 11. The Metro Police K-9 unit began 10 weeks of training for Nutzman and Charlie, who are both new to the field.

They completed the training Aug. 15 and now patrol the streets of Boulder City together.

Nutzman is not new to dogs, mind you. When he was growing up in Kalispell, Mont., his mother raised Karelians, better known as Russian bear dogs. His wife manages a veterinarian’s office. His family has a Boxer named Buster.

But this is different, much different, he said. This dog is all work and no play.

It’s not that Charlie wouldn’t like to play, Nutzman said, but as part of the training, that cannot be allowed. He spends his days at Nutzman’s house in a kennel, not out roaming the yard like most dogs. When he goes to work with Nutzman on the swing shift, he stays in a kennel in the police car until he is needed.

“It’s the only way we can train them,” Nutzman said. “If they have it too good at home, they won’t want to work. When they get out of the kennel, they get excited, and they are ready to work.”

Play is the reward. When Charlie finds contraband, either during training or in the real world, Nutzman pulls a red Kong dog toy on a rope out of his pocket and engages in a little tug-of-war. After the end of a shift, Charlie gets to swim laps in the Nutzmans’ backyard pool.

“He loves it,” Nutzman said. “He’s a typical Lab.”

Charlie, at 18 months old, still has a lot of puppy in him, Nutzman said, and he is working with him now on basic obedience.

“I have sit and stay,” he said. But when people are around, like any puppy, he has trouble paying attention. “He wants to love on people,” Nutzman said.

Charlie got to be the center of attention at the recent National Night Out in August. Nutzman had him there to meet the public and allow residents to have their photo taken with the new police dog.

“He did very well,” Nutzman said. “He gets a little hyper. But he loved it.”

Nutzman expects it to take about a year for him and Charlie to become an efficient team, but his goal is to use Charlie’s skills to catch more of the drug traffic that comes through Boulder City on U.S. 93 and 95.

As a patrol officer, before he added a K-9 to his duties, Nutzman had made drug arrests on those highways at least once a week, often more, he said. He expects that to increase with Charlie’s skills at work. With some of those arrests may come more drug money or other assets that can be confiscated. Charlie could end up paying his own way, Nutzman said.

“We all know that dope brings money,” he said. “We don’t train to find money, but if he follows the scent of drugs, we could well find it.”

Jean Reid Norman can be reached at 948-2073 or [email protected].