Officer Tom Reagan, at age 31, will mark his sixth anniversary with the Portland Police Department in mid-August. Reagan is a member of the K-9 Unit and is anticipating his dog Trixie’s certification by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) some time in April after a 10-day training period with one of their handlers. Then Trixie will be able to officially work as an explosives detection dog here in Portland. After that there will be a yearly evaluation, when the trainer and Reagan will do scenarios at the airport, bus station, and other areas.
Tom Reagan always had an interest in dogs and had a German shepherd while growing up. Sergeant Rob Johnsey became a mentor and also a good friend, and Reagan expressed an interest in becoming a member of the canine unit. Johnsey said he’d help him achieve that goal. Johnsey had been a canine officer before being promoted to sergeant.
[Sergeant Rob Johnsey]
Rob Johnsey suffered a tragic death in May of 2008 at age 37, after an accidental discharge of his service weapon, leaving his wife, two children, and a grief-stricken department to cope with his loss.
Reagan didn’t swerve from his goal to be a canine officer and was able to join the canine unit when an opening became available. Since the loss of Sergeant Johnsey, Reagan has become like a big brother to Johnsey’s son A. J., who just celebrated his 14th birthday. They spend time together on a regular basis.
Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio is where Reagan was sent for his specialized training course, which lasted for 10 weeks. He went down last fall and returned around
Christmas. This is where dogs are trained for military work and the Department of Defense training school is there.
Technically, the U.S. government owns Trixie, through a Homeland Security grant given to our police department by the Department of Defense.
The TSA canine programbrings experienced canines to airports. TSA sponsors different teams around the nation. The official name of the program is TSA’s National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program.
According to the TSA Web site, "training includes search techniques for aircraft, baggage, vehicles and transportation structures, as well as procedures for identifying dangerous materials and ‘alerting’ or letting the handler know when these materials are present."
At Lackland there are airplanes, two railroad cars, and warehouses that are set up as training laboratories. There’s also a giant car lot with hundreds of cars and buses used for training. In part of the facility there’s an area that looks like an airport terminal.
The Texas training pertained to dog health and handling of explosives and consisted of the various search techniques for finding the explosives.
Handlers try to match the dog to the personality and home life of the person who will be working with the animal.
Buddy was the first dog that Reagan had in Texas but that situation didn’t work out since Buddy had "environmental issues, being too timid and skittish." Reagan says "If you raised your hand, he’d duck. They were afraid he might become a fear biter."
Then Trixie was assigned to Reagan. Trixie is two years old; part Belgian Malinois and part German shepherd. She came from the Netherlands and she’s a small dog. Reagan says: "Trixie is playful, isn’t aggressive to people, and has a soft bite. She’s a good dog for bomb work because she has a good play drive, and is reward-oriented." Her favorite toy (a Kong) which is a piece of hard black rubber, is shaped like a thick round bone, that’s attached to a heavy cord. Playing with the Kong is Trixie’s reward for locating an odor that she’s been asked to find. During a workout on airport property she was allowed to sniff an explosive substance, which was then hidden in a field quite a distance away. She found it! The names of the explosive materials that the dogs deal with are not mentioned because that’s "classified information." When the dog detects the highest concentration of the explosive odor present, the animal indicates this find by sitting.
[Officer Tom Reagan and Trixie]
Trixie has been going through a familiarization and acclimatization process since coming to Portland with Reagan. She now lives with him at his condo, which is a very different type of setting than the kennel she had dwelled in all her life. Reagan says "Trixie is getting used to her home environment." Trixie is a multimodal dog and she’ll work the waterfront, train and bus stations, and the airport.
Quite visible, if you happen to look up to the ceiling of Officer Reagan’s police car, slipped under a light fixture, is a laminated newspaper clipping. It’s a loving gesture by Tom Reagan that was placed in memoriam to the sergeant who is "gone but never forgotten."
He would be quite proud of the young police officer whom he nurtured, who is now spending time with his son, and becoming an integral part of Portland’s K-9 team.
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