RCMP hosts workshop that teaches other police how to train dogs to find fentanyl
INNISFAIL, Alta. — A workshop at the RCMP’s dog training centre in Alberta has attracted officers and animals from police forces across the continent eager to see the centre’s pioneering work tackling the scourge of fentanyl.
“No agency in the world was conducting fentanyl detection for police dog service,” explained Staff Sgt. Eric Stebenne, senior trainer at the RCMP police dog service training centre in Innisfail, Alta.
“We really got interested in finding a safe way to introduce fentanyl detection as part of our program.”
Close to three dozen people from Canadian, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement agencies, some bringing their own dogs, completed the two-day workshop last week to learn RCMP methods for training dogs to search for fentanyl.