Newsgram

Some members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Citizens Academy Alumni Association recently took the opportunity to increase their law enforcement knowledge by visiting the K-9 Training Center in Fort Belle Fontaine Park in St. Louis County.

The visit included a tour of the kennel facilities, the classrooms, the training area and the obstacle course. The dogs are put through their paces to learn tracking and other techniques, to practice sniffing out narcotics, explosives and other scents, and to obey and carry out commands.

Demonstrations included finding hidden scented packages, tracking, taking down a "suspect" in a bite suit, and going through portions of the obstacle course. The bite suit easily weighs 20 pounds and alumni members enjoyed trying on the jacket.

Also on the grounds is a small cemetery -- the final resting place of police dogs that were either killed in the line of duty or passed away from natural causes. 

Many thanks to the personnel at the K-9 Training Center and the Officers of the CAAA for making this first outing possible.

If you attended the Citizens Academy and would like to join the alumni association, please contact SLMPCAAA Secretary Veronica Putz at (314) 621-5886 or email her at veronicaputz@charter.net.  If you own a business and would like to support the association, please visit the website at http://stlouismetropolitanpolicecitizensacademyalumniassociation.org/ for more information.

# # #