FMPD Roll Call
The Fort Myers Police Department is taking listeners behind the scenes of the agency. Each episode will highlight department initiatives, community partnerships, and the people working to keep our city safe.
FMPD Roll Call
Fort Myers Expands K9 Unit For 24/7 Coverage And Safer Events
Planning ahead for a safer city takes more than good intentions; it takes the right teams, tools, and training. We sit down with Chief Jason Fields and K9 Sergeant Sanders to unpack the expansion of the Fort Myers Police Department’s K9 unit—what’s changing, why it matters now, and how specialized dogs elevate safety at scale. From 24/7 coverage to new capabilities like gun and explosives detection, we explore how this growth meets the moment for busy events, school safety, and faster, more precise investigations.
You’ll hear how the unit blends patrol skills such as tracking and building searches with narcotics, firearms, and article detection to locate suspects, shell casings, and discarded evidence. We go inside the rigorous tryout process that selects patrol all-stars who can think clearly under stress, then follow them into K9 school where trust, communication, and reward-based training transform high-drive dogs into disciplined partners. The bond goes home after shift, too—handlers live with their dogs, building a 24/7 connection that pays off in focus and control on the street.
We also pull back the curtain on sourcing: why the team relies on a proven German vendor for durable, reliable dogs, what environmental tests look like, and how continuous training turns preparation into performance. A real-world story brings it to life—a challenging water and woods track that ended in a safe arrest thanks to persistence and odor-driven work. As the city grows, this expansion becomes a force multiplier: more coverage, faster response, and a visible deterrent at schools, hospitals, and large gatherings. Join us, meet the handlers and their four-legged partners, and see how proactive planning builds trust and keeps Fort Myers safe. If you enjoyed this conversation, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review to help others discover it.
Welcome back to FMPD Roll Call. I'm Public Information Officer Megan Fuentes. Today we're diving into one of the most exciting updates happening within the Fort Myers Police Department. The expansion of our canine unit. Joining me are Chief Jason Fields and Canine Sergeant Sanders. Roll call begins now. The expansion of the canine unit, why now?
SPEAKER_01:Well, we had a couple recent canine retirements, the growth of the city overall. We want to be able to expand our capabilities to respond to the number of especial events we have in a very specialized way with some of the canines that we're adding to. Plus, our retention efforts are doing really well right now, so we have the manpower to do that. So I want to be able to capitalize on all these all these times.
SPEAKER_00:And Sergeant Sanders, what does this mean for the working capabilities of the dogs on the road, this expansion of the canine unit?
SPEAKER_02:It gives us a lot more um options to do different things with our dogs now. We'll be able to have things like an explosives detection canine again, which is big for us, but considering how many large events we have downtown in different parts of the city. And it also gives us just more of an ability to have more dogs in the community on the road daily. Pretty much 24-hour coverage through the city. We'll have a canine unit available to help respond for calls for service or special events, anything of that nature. Respond and answer calls right away, immediately, in case we need a dog there to help locate somebody, any type of call for service that we would get. We won't have to call for additional resources from outside the city or anything like that. So the city's growing, the agency is growing, and then obviously so we have the canine unit growing too, and it's going to be uh very exciting come next year once we get these new dogs trained and out on the street.
SPEAKER_00:So, Chief, this is about essentially planning ahead, correct?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. We're always looking for the future. What can we do next? How can we improve the resources we have now? And uh what's the next step?
SPEAKER_00:So the teamwork between the leadership and the specialty units, such as K9, how important is that to the department's mission?
SPEAKER_01:So overall, we are one big team, and then we have multiple mini teams throughout each unit division. But our canine teams, between the handler and the dogs, they they're just an unbelievably uh strong, well-bonded team. And uh there's one of the hardest working teams we got out there. But we need to have that partnership with the guys and girls, the men and women on the road uh handling the calls, whether it's on a uh track, whether it's on perimeter, whether it's hunting down a violent criminal. So we got to make sure that we blend and gel in all those areas.
SPEAKER_00:Aaron Powell Which goes into what kind of dogs do we have right now? What specialties do we have on the unit?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, we currently have seven police dogs right now, and they vary from having patrol applications, which is your tracking, your building searches, apprehension work, things like that. And then also we have uh canines that are narcotics trained, so they're trained to find illegal narcotics, which we will use in in various ways. Um we'll do school searches sometimes for things like that, but also on traffic stops, things of that nature. And then we currently have in the works of some new dogs, such as a gun dog and an explosive canine as well.
SPEAKER_00:And Chief, speaking of the new canines coming, why is that so critical to the city of Fort Myers?
SPEAKER_01:Very simply put, it enhances our abilities to keep everybody safe. We see that our special events are becoming more and more frequent. We have a lot of large gatherings. It seems like there's a protest every other weekend, different special events downtown, and this just really, like I said, enhances our abilities to keep people safe in a proactive way.
SPEAKER_00:Aaron Ross Powell So these aren't just for like high-profile situations. You're gonna see them in schools, you're gonna see them at community events and stuff like that, correct?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Does does it also help for the investigations?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, absolutely. Our Canis have located multiple people during these investigations, but also they've located evidence and things like that too, and or found firearms or found evidence that was discarded in a case, found discarded clothing from a suspect that had fled, things like that. So we definitely have an ability to contribute to multiple investigations. We have the ability to show up to a scene of potentially where a gun was fired and we can deploy our canines to locate the spent shell casings, right? Locate potentially a firearm that was discarded during the commission of that crime as well. They're trained with a much more powerful nose than we'll ever have to find these items to help assist the investigation.
SPEAKER_00:So that would be why we're adding a gun detection dog, correct?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, gun detection dog is very popular and upcoming, I think, nationwide, especially with how proactive we are in keeping our schools and our kids safe in schools. That's obviously, I think, a number one priority for any chief or any sheriff in the nation right now is keeping our students safe. And this is a great way to not just have the dog going through, you know, potentially doing detection searches for firearms, but also just the visual deterrence of it, knowing that we have one and we're able to bring one in and do that and demonstrate the capabilities of the dog so students or people can see that, hey, if I brought a firearm to school and this dog does come around, they're likely going to be able to smell it and search that out. And we want to take that proactive approach before anything else.
SPEAKER_00:And I know you're actively training her right now.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, canine scout. She just got here, just starting her training. She's incredible. Can't wait to show her to everybody here. I think in the near future, get her out there into the community, let people meet her and see how awesome she is. She's a black lab, year and a half old, and she is motivated to work. I can tell you that.
SPEAKER_00:Excellent. Can't wait. Chief, so obviously, since we're getting a gun detection dog and open carry has now become legal. So can you please talk to me a little bit about why the gun detection dog, especially with open carry?
SPEAKER_01:So yes, we Florida's gone to open carry like a lot of other states have already, and is going to be a little bit of growing pains as we as we work through this. However, uh, not all areas allow for open carry. There are private places or private businesses that don't allow it sometimes. We want to make sure that all areas are safe, like our schools, various meetings. And yes, people might be able to openly carry in certain areas, but it's still nice to know who has a gun and who doesn't.
SPEAKER_02:Some of our places, like hospitals as well. Um they're usually they they will call once in a while because obviously people just come in there unchecked sometimes with bags and things like that, and they'll call because those are some restricted areas that you're still not allowed to carry a firearm or possess a firearm.
SPEAKER_00:Aaron Powell So let's talk about how these K-9 teams come together. And I know we recently held tryouts, and that involves quite a bit. So please tell me about what these involve.
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell Yes, the K-9 tryout is a very rigorous day for all the candidates that show up. And we were very fortunate to have double-digit numbers this year show up to try out and get a couple spots uh within the unit, which we had. We had two vacancies. And it was a long day that tested, you know, their mental fortitude, their physical abilities, and they all performed really well. They all provided incredible answers to why they want to be in the unit when they were interviewed. And it's a long day involving putting on the bite suit and taking apprehensions, showing you're not scared of the dog, showing you're willing to work with the dogs in any city situation, low light situations. We take them through the woods on a track to simulate things that they would recounter in a real life canine situation and see how they'd perform under stress. I think that's one of the biggest things we're looking for, somebody who can perform well under stress, because usually that's where the canine handlers will find themselves in on any type of call for service that they're called to. Something potentially a little bit higher in the stress, in the stress area of this job. And uh, we selected two candidates. We're very excited for them to get started here in the next few months, and uh we'll be progressing forward to close to double-digit. We'll have double digit numbers in canines here. So that'll be a first for our agency ever.
SPEAKER_00:That's super exciting. I know I'm excited. And everyone loves our canines.
SPEAKER_01:So everybody loves the canines. Everybody loves the dogs.
SPEAKER_00:They really do. So I'm super excited. And Chief, you've seen firsthand how amazing these handlers are. What stands out to you most about their work?
SPEAKER_01:Uh a couple things. Obviously, they drive. These dogs work best when they're working. That's all they want to do is go to work, and they they're always chasing that reward. And once they define the bad guy, fine, they track down whoever whomever, they get that reward at the end. But that relationship, too, between the handler and the dog is something really special. I mean, those dogs are not just at work. You don't just check one out and check it back in day in and day out. The dogs go home with the handlers, they retire with them, so they're with them basically 24-7. So it's a it's a unique um partnership that they have, and uh, I think it's just great.
SPEAKER_00:What's that like for you to be able to take your partner home?
SPEAKER_02:It's awesome. It's actually it's actually really fun. It actually increases that bond knowing that they're home with you. You take care of them like any other pet when they're at home. And then you also get that on-off switch essentially, where they are a pet at home, but they obviously have certain limitations and restrictions while they are at home because they are still a police dog. We're very aware of that um and their capabilities, but it just increases that bond that you know you're feeding them every day, every night, you're taking care of them. They know that you're providing shelter and food for them, and it just you know helps include that, increase that bond between the handler and the dog for the rest of their career. And it's very important early on, obviously, developing that bond between a handler and a dog. But once it's there, they'll they'll both do anything for each other. But the chief's right, the dogs want to work for that reward more than anything. They're so driven, and that's that's a part of the selecting them, is how driven they are to uh to do their job.
SPEAKER_00:Something most people don't know is our canines actually come from Germany.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, we're very fortunate to have a vendor uh directly from Germany currently. Um we we've looked around the state and there are plenty of great vendors within the state. We just have a great relationship with our vendor right now in Germany, a dog scout. And we actually have the ability to fly there, select uh canines, find maybe we'll go there and see 10 dogs, maybe sometimes we'll go there and see 20 dogs, but we'll find the two best uh candidates this time. We'll screen them for things like how good their drive is, how how hard they're willing to work, you know, environmental things such as maybe being scared of the dark or slick floors, things like that that people really don't think about, that we can't have a dog be scared of. So we'll go there and do all of that and we'll fly them home. They'll go from 30 degrees to a balmy 85 or 90 here in Florida. A little bit of a culture shock for them. You know, we'll give them a couple weeks to acclimate, and then a couple probably two weeks after that, it it's game on. And it's tr it's training, training, training for the next, you know, four to six months just for the bare minimum standards, and then it's training, training, training for the next eight to ten years that you'll be with that dog.
SPEAKER_00:And that's a huge investment, Chief. So what makes it worth it?
SPEAKER_01:We've had tremendous success with the vendor. Uh, it's got to be going back at least a couple of decades now. The durability, the reliability, dogs are extremely proficient in what they do. We make sure we pair up, like Sonda Sanders said, the the handler with the dog, the right personalities and the right uh the mix is there. But we've just had so much tremendous success in the longevity of the dogs. So uh we want to keep that keep that positive momentum going.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think the durability, like you said, is a big part of it. It's less time spent at the vet on injuries or internal things that could cause a dog to, you know, not be able to work and or cost a lot of money to get repaired. Our vendors had a really good history of giving us dogs that are durable, lasting eight, ten plus years. And um, even at 10 years old, they're still wanting to work. Sometimes we we force that retirement on them because it's time for them to sit on the couch. But the durability is very important.
SPEAKER_00:Aaron Powell Let's clear up a few myths here, okay? Because as we see KNs on TV, some people might think that they know it all. So, what are some of the biggest misconceptions?
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Powell I think sometimes people ask me if they say a certain thing to my dog, will they respond to them? And they won't. I think our dogs are pretty handler dependent in that area, whether it's giving them commands in English or German or things like that. And somebody thinks they can speak German to my dog. And I've seen people attempt to speak German to my dog, and he just looks at them sideways, wondering if they have a tree in their pocket. But I think that'd be one of the ones that we kind of run into a little bit is people thinking they can say or hear my dog will hear them give a command and my dog's just gonna hop to it. Doesn't quite work like that, and we train that obviously for those reasons, but I think that's one of them we could say is is definitely a misconception.
SPEAKER_00:Aaron Ross Powell So if I yelled a command at your dog, what would your dog do?
SPEAKER_02:Aaron Ross Powell He'd probably stare at you sideways. He'd probably look at me first. Like, is it okay? What are we doing here?
SPEAKER_00:Like, nice try. That's it. Chief, you've seen how disciplined they are, and that kind of obedience must come from intense training and trust.
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell He already kind of alluded to it a little bit, but months and months of training. A typical law enforcement officer goes through six months of training in a police academy and then finishing school and a pre-deployment program and then a couple months of field training. And our canines go through that similar timeline, you know, four to six months of just the basics, and then they they go to their finishing schools for those fine, whether it's patrol bite work or a specialized scent work that they're doing for drugs, articles, things like that. So these are for all intents and purposes, these are highly trained athletes. We treat them like athletes, they perform like athletes, they live up to that athlete mantra. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_00:And the training never stops.
SPEAKER_02:The training never stops. Um we have eight-year-old dogs doing the same thing sometimes as our brand new dogs. We always are looking for different ways to challenge them and train them. And that is occurring every single week as a unit. But also I I check the training logs daily for our unit, and these these handlers are doing the stuff on their own time when they have downtime from calls for service and things like that, too. Always finding different ways to train, running their own tracks, doing their own article searches, doing their own obedience. So it never stops. And you can see, you can tell in the canine world who's putting in the work with their with their partner when they show up to do calls or when they show up to do their certifications. You can always tell who's who's putting in the training and who's not.
SPEAKER_00:And that brings me to the bond you guys have between the canine handler and the canine. And obviously, I mean you guys go through school together, the canine school, you live together, you take them to the vet, you feed them. So tell me about the canine school specifically and building that bond.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, the canine school, you you hit the ground running right away, but the canine school we feel cannot start heading in the right direction until there's a clear communication between the handler and the dog, and that bond is developed where the dog trusts this handler. When the handler says something, the dog trusts to listen to him because he's they're going to be rewarded. They're gonna they know nothing bad is going to happen when they trust the handler. So developing that bond right away is so important. And then we start to see everything else fall in place once that bond's in place. And um these dogs want to work for their reward, for their food reward, whether it be that or a toy. They love their handler to death, but they want to work more for that. So that's what we try to focus on is what really makes these dogs go. And usually that is the food reward and or the toy reward, and we just harness that energy and turn that and use that for every part of the training in the academy.
SPEAKER_00:What kind of officer do you think thrives in that kind of environment?
SPEAKER_02:For me, I think what we look for is what we consider to be patrol all-stars. These are officers that we have all throughout our agency that in their primary duties, they're fantastic at their primary duties. When they're on the road, they're running all their calls. When they have downtime, they're doing proactive police work. When they have downtime for proactive police work, they're training on their own. That's what we're looking for. And that's what I think we have found in our most uh in our two new handlers is they are absolutely efficient in their current primary jobs. And then it's upon us to teach them how to. When I say us, our lead trainer, Officer Schultz, and I will assist him. That we'll teach them the dog things. But we need to know right away that we're getting very motivated police officers, and that's what we're looking for right out of the gate.
SPEAKER_00:What about you, Chief?
SPEAKER_01:Uh like you said, that combination has to be there. Yes, you want your go-getters to match the level of go-getterness that the dog has as well. So we want to make sure we match that up. And yes, we do have a very strict selection process. I'm confident our process. I'm confident all the handlers that come out there and run candidates through that process. And we had a really good selection, this go-around, super confident in the abilities of the the the uh two that were just recently chosen. But there's a lot on the on that list that uh can definitely step up to that work. But sometimes it's just those those fine little minute details that separates one person from the next. But uh, I'm happy with the selection that they made.
SPEAKER_00:Now, I know obviously they go through tons of training. And one thing in Florida, we all know we have a lot of water surrounding us, whether that be canals, the Close Achieve River, tell me about the training that they go through.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, it's very rigorous from doing those type of things to making sure they're comfortable in those settings because you will find yourself in that setting. If you don't train for it, you're likely going to find yourself in that setting. And we've seen it time and time again. A lot of our training is based off of a handler coming back to us saying, I dealt with this the other night, it got a little weird. Can we work on it this week? And we'll go right in there and make sure that dog is fully confident in that area. And that does, you've been out there with us on the boat, watched them deploy off of the boat, being around in the sand, in the water, on high elevated surfaces, being, you know, going that, taking them upstairs, things like that. So we're finding, we're trying to find all different ways to uh to train these dogs to have them ready for any situation. And the canine world is growing so much. There's so many incredible trainers out there, some of the best in the world, which we fortunately have been able to actually bring to the agency in the last few years and have them put on training as well for us. And and we continue to look for these, these, uh, these instructors out there, see what they're doing, and then if it works for us, we're gonna implement it. So training is it's our number one priority here because we know if we have efficient training, we're gonna be efficient on the road.
SPEAKER_01:Is it safe to say that just like an officer, the the body can't go where the mind hasn't gone yet? Yes. So we're constantly exposing these canines and the handlers as well. The handlers as well. Different types of environments, sounds, sense, everything, the full gamut. So when they are challenged with a uh a situation that they haven't, you know, uh haven't been exposed to yet, but if they haven't trained, they at least can make headway.
SPEAKER_02:I think that builds off that. Some of the training we'll run on Thursday night. It's not even dog related at all. We want to see what the handler will do in this situation. They might think going in there this is a a dog, a a call to deploy my dog, and it's not. We're looking them to have that critical thinking of this is not a situation to use a dog, this is a different type of situation. So it's not just dog specific. We're also challenging those handlers physically and mentally to make those decisions under stress. And we'll add that stress. You've seen it in some of our trainings. We'll add the loud music, we'll add the lights, we'll add the fog machine, you know, we'll add the lights and sirens as well. So we're trying to put not just the dog in those situations, but also the handler as well.
SPEAKER_00:And I think that's really important, obviously, to expose the canine handler and the canine to multiple environments that they can possibly face because there's so many different calls.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. A little bit of information overload, and they can kind of filter it out and stay focused on the task at hand. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:The water training reminds me of a recent arrest that we put out for you.
unknown:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Can you tell us a little bit about the training that you did prior to coming to that?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, we've we trained uh Balor in water before, my KM partner Balor, he's trained around water and water, and then once they get into odor, we would say, and they know that the person they're looking for is there, the nose goes where it wants to go, and you need to be willing to follow that. And this time it took us to where we thought it would be about three feet deep and it'd be about six foot deep. Uh we navigated through that, got through into the woods, and once again, once the dog's in odor, you need to be able to stay on them. That's a part of I'd say the tryout thing too, is being physically able to keep up with your dog and keep pushing with your dog because sometimes we find the handler can get more tired quicker than the dog. They want to keep going. Uh, they will go until they can't go anymore. So that's what happened in the woods. We kept going, he kept staying in odor, and we were able to uh locate the person who'd recently just committed the crime, um, take them into custody without issue. But it was uh about 30 to 40 minutes in that swamp in those woods, and it was definitely one to remember.
SPEAKER_00:And I think it really shows the training and trust that goes into the canine handlers and the canines and their partners for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Chief, as we look towards the future, what does the canine expansion say about the direction of the department?
SPEAKER_01:It's just that we're expanding and we're becoming a lot more specialized in that one area of policing. Um across the board, we're looking to always become that much more advanced and specialized. But we're talking about canines today. And now that we're expanding the unit and filling some voids we've had just recently, it's it's exciting to see.
SPEAKER_00:And what are you most excited about considering it is your unit right now?
SPEAKER_02:I'm excited to get these canine handlers into their school, but ultimately I'm excited to get them out on the street, I would say. I want us to be able to I can't wait to about you know six to seven months we have fully staffed with our canines on the road, hovering from six in the morning till six at night, and then all the way back around through the night shift. Having anytime an officer here from the patrol unit, from the specialty unit, every time they call a canine or they need one, we're there and we're available, and we're really close to that. So I think having our full staffing, which we're gonna have, is very exciting for the agency and very should be very exciting for the citizens as well. Everyone's gonna be much safer having these resources out there on a daily, hourly basis. And we're excited to get them and get training with them. It's it's gonna be uh a really good six months.
SPEAKER_00:I'm excited to see them.
SPEAKER_01:It's gonna definitely be a force multiply for keeping people safe and doing a lot of crime fighting. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you both for joining me on this second episode of FMB roll call. Is there anything you would like to add that I did not about your role here?
SPEAKER_02:We hope to that everybody continues to show up to some of these events and meet the dogs, see the dogs. We want to answer questions about the dogs, Citizens Police Academy, all these different places that we are. We're showing up to do demonstrations, come up to us, talk to us, ask us questions. We're always looking to engage with the community on you know different things about the canines. And sometimes we we meet people that have done this job for you know 15, 20 years and they give us some ideas, or sometimes they'll give us some some different tips of the trade. So we're always looking to engage with different people.
SPEAKER_00:It never ends for sure. Well, that wraps up FMPD roll call. Be sure to follow us for more behind the scenes looks at the Fort Myers Police Department. Stay safe and we'll see you next time.