Erko’s Bite Is Worse Than His Bark : Officer Almost Always Gets His Suspect

There is no room for argument when Police Officer Erko Von Bowie barks out a command to criminals to drop their weapons and surrender.

It’s clear his bite is worse than his bark.

Erko is a badge-carrying police dog who has collared 125 suspects in the last three years--an impressive record, officers say--in manhunts ranging from rugged San Fernando Valley canyon bottoms to plush jewelry store showrooms.

“If the area is sealed, in probably 999 times out of 1,000 he’ll get his man,” said Jay Moberly, a Los Angeles policeman who is usually a leash-length behind Erko during the searches. “He’s very good.”

Very persistent, too.

When police had all but given up hope of finding two teen-age hold-up suspects who fled into an overgrown Tarzana canyon three months ago, Erko succeeded where officers in helicopters and on foot had failed.

‘Impossible Situation’

“It looked like an impossible situation. We’d been out two hours and had lost their footprints in the brush. Erko was pooped and had a thorn in his ear. I was taking him back to the car when he caught their scent,” said Moberly, a lifelong Valley resident.

“He went crashing into the brush and I went crawling after him. He found the two about 100 yards away, hiding in a little fort beneath brush and two downed eucalyptus trees.”

Two months ago, Erko tracked down a suspected rapist who fled pursuing officers near Hansen Dam, in Lake View Terrace. He found the man hiding beneath shrubs in a backyard after a 15-minute search.

A more recent hunt for a North Hollywood car thief was even shorter: two minutes.

“It was incredible. Erko went the opposite way we’d thought the guy had gone and found him outside our perimeter. He was hiding behind a fern on a lady’s front porch,” Moberly said.

This month, Erko sniffed a robbery suspect out of hiding in a Canoga Park neighborhood when the man’s car crashed and he fled into a residential area. The dog found the suspect hiding under a trailer three blocks from the crash.

In other searches, the dog has found suspects hidden behind walls of stores, under equipment in garages and in dozens of other places that two-legged police officers might have overlooked.

“We save a lot of man-hours by using these dogs,” said Lt. Dave Atkins, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s canine squad. “Especially out there in the Valley. Sometimes searches can cover a lot of terrain. We have to look over a lot of area.”

Launched five years ago with two dogs, the city’s K-9 corps now uses 12 animals. The dogs, usually German shepherds like Erko, are bought in Germany at a cost of about $1,500 each. Although they arrive partially trained, their search skills are refined by an officer who was a professional dog trainer before becoming a policeman.

Each of the dogs lives with its handler and works at night from the department’s downtown headquarters. The dogs are on call for daytime hunts. The handlers are assigned their own police cars to take the animals to search scenes.

Take on Human Identities

The dogs take on almost human identities in the eyes of their handlers--and the Police Department.

The dogs are issued regulation police officer identification badges to wear on their collars. Erko’s lists his full Von Bowie name and includes his photograph, his personnel number and his paw print. Moberly talks of Erko’s “arrests” as if the dog himself had handcuffed the suspects and read them their rights.

“He’s got a personnel packet just like I do. He wears an ID card just like I do,” Moberly said.

Moberly, 32, is the department’s senior dog handler. Before he obtained Erko, he worked with a search dog named Elka, who retired because of lameness. Elka still lives with Moberly and, like Erko, is a friendly companion to Moberly’s wife and 3-year-old daughter.

On the job, Erko is all business, however. He becomes eager to go to work when he hears the sounds of police radios and helicopters. Then Moberly’s command of “find ‘em” is enough to initiate a determined search until he is called off.

According to dog experts, search dogs zero in on the odor of sweat and fear emitted by people who know they are being chased. If the search area is cleared of other humans, a suspect’s scent can be as obvious to a trained dog as the smell of fresh baked bread is to humans, experts say.

K-9 unit dogs are not used for narcotics searches, which are the province of police dogs trained to detect drugs.

Dogs are frequently rested during searches, freeing their handlers to work with other officer-dog teams. On two such occasions, Moberly said, he has shot and killed suspects who reached for guns when ordered out of hiding.

When search dogs find their prey, they press their noses against the suspect if they can reach him. About 40% of the time, suspects attempt to swat the dog away, which frequently provokes the dog to bite, Moberly said. Some suspects use sticks or knives against the dogs, he said.

Debbie O’Connell, administrative clerk for the K-9 unit, said bite statistics for the squad’s dogs have not been compiled. But she said all bites have been superficial, usually to suspects’ arms. None has resulted in hospitalization or led to a successful lawsuit against the city, she said.

Dogs Protect Themselves

Moberly said it is up to the dogs to protect themselves until officers reach the scene and take the suspect into custody.

“You can use deadly force to protect yourself and another person, but not an animal,” he said. “The big thing is, you’re putting a dog out in front. If someone takes a bullet, it’s going to be them. As much as we love them, they’re expendable.”

Although police dogs have been battered and bruised, none has been killed by a suspected criminal. A robber arrested by Moberly received an extra year--for cruelty to an animal--on his 10-year prison sentence because he kicked Elka in the head.

One Dog Died on Duty

The only Los Angeles police dog to die in the line of duty was the victim of an accident several years ago. Trailing a suspect at night on the roof of an eight-story building, the dog picked up a scent from a nearby roof, leaped a parapet at the edge of the roof and plunged to his death.

Moberly said Erko’s career should last until the dog, now 4 1/2 years old, is 8 or 9 provided he stays healthy. The Police Department pays all food and veterinary bills for dogs on active duty.

The dogs do not qualify for pensions after retirement. Nonetheless, Moberly plans to keep Erko and Elka “forever.”

“I love this guy,” he said.