Cracking Cases Takes Good Scents

After an intruder broke into a Pacific Palisades home two years ago and raped a 12-year-old girl at knifepoint, police came up empty-handed looking for a suspect. They hit a similar dead-end last year when two boys were found beaten to death on a La Crescenta school playground.

So investigators sought the assistance of Riley, Knight and Scarlet. And the trained canines helped track down the suspects.

Assigned to the Los Angeles County sheriff’s Special Enforcement Bureau and K-9 Services Detail, the dogs and their two handlers have volunteered their services on more than 750 local police investigations since 1996. Civilian handlers Joe D’Allura and Ted Hamm do not receive a penny for their work, but their services are in high demand with police departments throughout the county.

“Their commitment level is unparalleled,” said homicide Det. John Alviani of the Los Angeles Police Department, which is considering creating a scent-evidence dog team.

“I hate to say it, but they’re more dedicated than some police officers,” said homicide Det. Mike Scott, a 14-year Sheriff’s Department veteran who has worked with the dogs for five years.

Because of the team’s success, the Sheriff’s Department also is considering starting its own canine scent-evidence teams, using deputies and department-owned dogs. The department is in negotiations with D’Allura and Hamm to hire them as independent contractors to train the new teams.

Scent-evidence dogs differ from traditional patrol K-9 teams, which are used for safety rather than investigations. While patrol K-9s can find weapons or other evidence, D’Allura, Hamm and their dogs are certified under a modified version of the Sheriff’s Department’s search-and-rescue program.

The dogs have to be recertified and tested every two years or so. The test involves following the scent of a person who the dogs do not know on a mile-long “blind trail” in an urban area. The teams also train every other week.

D’Allura handles Riley, a Labrador retriever, and Hamm owns Knight, a bloodhound. He also worked with Scarlet, another bloodhound, until her death last month. Since then, the Sheriff’s Department has taken up a private collection to buy Hamm a bloodhound puppy as Scarlet’s replacement.

The bloodhounds are “scent trailers” who follow an individual’s scent. The Labrador is a “scent discriminator,” who matches human scents with objects that a person has touched, handled or left their scent on in some way.

In the Pacific Palisades rape, the victim could not identify her attacker because he wore a gas mask. Detectives found a dark-blue knit cap in a nearby alley and a folding knife outside the girl’s bedroom door. The dog handlers used a vacuum-like device to extract scents from the items and applied them to cotton pads.

The pad carrying the rapist’s odor was placed before Scarlet, who led officers to another unit in the same apartment complex.

Enter Riley, who took a whiff from the pad and scampered to each of the complex’s six apartment doors. Moments later, his barking alerted detectives to one unit where an 18-year-old lived. Detectives searched the suspect’s pickup truck, where they found a gas mask. The neighbor eventually pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault charges.

Despite such successes, some detectives hesitate to use dogs in investigations. The reasons are varied, from fragile human egos to a preference for high technology.

I. Lehr Brisbin, an expert on the use of law enforcement canines, argues that dogs should not be used unless their handlers can come up with an objective scientific standard of testing and evaluating their animals’ work.

Brisbin, a University of Georgia professor, says that the error rate can be as high as 30% to 40%, a number he bases on a study of Dutch police canines.

Brisbin is a defense witness in the trial of Michael Demirdjian, a 16-year-old who allegedly used a rock to bludgeon two boys to death on a La Crescenta school playground. The dogs matched the scent on the rock to the defendant.

“A dog is a law enforcement tool like a Breathalyzer or DNA test,” Brisbin said. “That means the dog should be available to have the results of their abilities tested and evaluated independently each time they’re used. Like all of us, dogs can and do have bad days.”

In a Long Beach case last year, a federal jury awarded $1.7 million to Jeffrey Allen Grant for his wrongful arrest and detainment in connection with a series of rapes and burglaries. His defense attorney argued that Long Beach police conducted inadequate lineups and that DNA evidence proved the bloodhound evidence was faulty.

Hamm, whose dogs were not involved in the Long Beach case, says that his animals’ work is verified through a combination of corroborating evidence, suspect confessions, statements from witnesses and convictions.

Critics notwithstanding, the canine unit’s caseload has grown from 32 investigations in 1996 to an expected 300 or more by the end of this year. Hamm quit his job as a hospital clerk in 1997 to pursue investigations full time. D’Allura runs a property management firm in Orange County.

Recently, the Sheriff’s Department purchased a new van for Hamm and a Ford Explorer for D’Allura, and the department pays for the gas and maintenance.