Employee Q&A: K-9 Officer Kyle Morrison

Employee Q&A: K-9 Officer Kyle Morrison

By Alexis BlueUniversity Communications
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Kyle Morrison and his dog, Michael, patrol UA sporting events, political visits and more as UAPD's canine explosive detection team.
Kyle Morrison and his dog, Michael, patrol UA sporting events, political visits and more as UAPD's canine explosive detection team.

Name
Kyle Morrison

Position
Police officer, The University of Arizona Police Department K-9 Unit

Number of Years at the UA
9 1/2

Favorite part about working at the UA
"I like my co-workers and the fact that we do something different every day. It's not like a 9-to-5 job where you're doing the same thing every day. And athletics. I'm a big sports fan, so I like following the football team (and) basketball team."

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You may have seen him at a UA football game with his nose to the ground, but this is one dog that's sniffing for more than ordinary odors.

Michael, a 7-year-old, 72-pound black Labrador Retriever, is part of the UA Police Department's explosive detection team. Trained to detect about 19,000 different types of explosives through scent, Michael can often be seen strolling campus and patrolling UA events with his handler, Kyle Morrison.

Partners for five years, Morrison and Michael have tackled assignments across the nation, from a G-8 Summit to President Barack Obama's recent commencement speech at Arizona State University. When a day's work is done, Michael goes from partner to pet, heading home with Morrison to Morrison's wife and three young sons.

With Michael napping at his feet, Morrison recently took time to talk to Lo Que Pasa about his job.

How did you and Michael get paired up?
We got Michael through a task force with ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives). Basically the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms trains bomb dogs for state and local police departments. In exchange, the handler has to do details all over the country when need be. ... So I've traveled, usually about two or three weeks per year, doing large details all over the country. ... (I first met Michael when) I went back to Front Royal, Va. ... and there they went through about a weeklong classroom portion of the training and then we had about nine weeks of hands-on training with the dog. Upon (completing) the 10 weeks, we certified that we are a competent team and I brought him back.

What was involved in the training?
He's explosive only, so he knew the explosive odors when I got him. He had been through some basic training, but we got to learn to search together. It's almost more training for me as far as recognizing his change of behavior when he's onto an explosive odor. ... He's trained using a food reward methodology so basically he gets all his daily food through training. So pretty much every shift I'll try to set up some kind of training for him. I'll go to a building on or off campus and set up training. ... I'll go up to McKale stadium quite often and hide something out and run him through, so he gets some kind of training pretty much every shift, if possible. I also do trainings on the weekends because I have to give him his daily food. I set up training in my garage, something as simple as letting him smell a couple different odors and feeding him that way.

How does he know when he's on an assignment?
I wear a food pouch. When I strap that on my hip that's kind of when he knows it's time to go to work. ... And I'll give him verbal commands to "seek." That means it's time to go search.

Who pays for his food?
The department pays for pretty much all vet bills, food supplies. Really nothing comes out of my pocket as far as maintaining him. Also, once he retires, as long as I still work for the department, his food is paid for by the department.

What's the retirement age for dogs?
Probably about 9 to 10 depending on health. He's 7 now, and I'd like to work him another two years, and that'll give him some time just to be a pet for a while too.

Why were you interested in working with a dog?
I had family that had worked with police dogs. My father-in-law was a handler in Colorado, so just talking with him, a lot of stories he told me kind of sparked my interest. And I used to attend the Tucson K-9 Trials (police and military dog competitions) even when I was a kid, so it was kind of something I always wanted to do.

What are some of the most exciting assignments you've had?
One of the first assignments I did was the RNC (Republican National Convention in New York City in 2004). There was the G-8 Summit, which was in Savannah, Ga., in 2004. We've done Rose Bowls, Super Bowls, a lot of the sporting events because they bring such a large amount of people. We work the golf tournament every year up in Dove Mountain, the Accenture golf tournament. We've done a lot of VIP details, so when Bush comes to town, or Obama at ASU – we were up there for that.

Have you ever found anything?
We've found some ammunition. We've never found a device that's ready to go off or anything.

How does he react if he detects something?
He's trained with a passive alert. There's two ways to teach a dog to alert to something. You have an aggressive alert and a passive alert. A passive alert, you basically just train a dog to sit, and he'll basically point his nose to where the item is that the odor's coming from, and he'll sit down. Then he wants to be rewarded. Aggressive alert would be to scratch and start barking and stuff, and that's typically your narcotics dogs. With explosives, you obviously don't want a dog scratching or pawing at a potential explosive device so you teach a passive alert.

Where was Michael before he got this job?
He's actually purchased from a Puppies Behind Bars program. They give prisoners dogs that are going to be seeing-eye dogs. So part time he actually lived in a prison in New Jersey, and part of the time he was with a family in New Jersey. Their job was to teach him basic obedience and socialize him to places. ... There's about a 70-some percent failure rate for seeing-eye dogs, so you have these dogs – they're trained in basic obedience, they're good dogs – they just display something that won't allow them to be a seeing-eye dog. So then ATF purchases the dogs. We call it a career change. It's not a failure; it's a career change. But I'm still in contact with the family that raised him. I send them pictures of him all the time.

If you're on campus with Michael, will you let people pet him?
Yeah, I typically allow that. I think a lot of our job is public relations, just letting people know we're out there. Deterrence is a very important aspect. ... I do a lot of demonstrations with him. I take him to elementary schools, probably five or 10 a year. We'll go to schools or do demonstrations at sorority houses or (residence) halls.

Where does he hang out at the station?
We have a kennel for him at the station ... but he's very social so I'll have him out and everybody in the department plays with him. He's a kind of morale boost for everybody too. Everybody here loves dogs.

What's he like at home?
He's probably the most gentle dog. He usually sleeps with one of kids. He's just a normal dog at home. ... He probably sleeps about 18 hours a day.

Do you have any other pets?
I have a chocolate Lab (named Duncan), just turned 1 year. The other dog's real playful and by the time he (Michael) comes home from work he's just ready to lay down, so sometimes he gets annoyed, but they're pretty good together. They play quite a bit.

Do ever get tired of spending all your time with Michael?
No, he's great. Every now and then I'll say it's like bringing your kid to work, where it's something you always have to be worried about ... but I really enjoy the job and enjoy having him. I wouldn't change it for the world.

Do you know someone who has an interesting job at the UA? Send his or her name and contact information to lqp@email.arizona.edu for consideration for a future Employee Q&A. 

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