LINCOLN — A private investigator from Maine is putting his drug-sniffing dog out for hire.

Hank Dusenbery, retired Lincoln police chief and former state trooper, has trained his 20-month-old German shepherd dog “Mo” with state police and other professional law enforcement dog handlers to sniff out drugs, and he thinks there will be parents, educators and businesses interested in utilizing the dog’s abilities.

“My intent is to hire him to businesses, schools, or individuals who want to ensure that they have a drug-free environment,” Dusenbery, a retired Lincoln police chief and state trooper, told the Bangor Daily News.

Dogs like Mo are used by law enforcement to detect drugs, help find people or control crowds, but Dusenbery said his agency, Dusenbery Special Investigations of Lincoln, won’t be involved in law enforcement. If his dog finds drugs, then it’s up to his client to decide what to do about it, he said.

The 63-year-old Dusenbery hit upon the idea of training a dog for narcotics detection as a way to help business owners and parents cope with the stresses of drug addiction among their workers and children, he said.

Law enforcement agencies “have dogs that are so busy that they find it hard to dedicate time to these kinds of critical issues,” Dusenbery said.

The Bangor Daily News says Dusenbery appears to be the first person to hire out a drug-sniffing dog in Maine, but the idea has been taking hold elsewhere over the last decade.

Drug-sniffing dogs are now available for hire in a number of big cities from New York to Los Angeles. In Maryland, Dogs Finding Drugs, a nonprofit, hires out dogs and handlers to detect not just drugs but explosives, firearms and even bedbugs.

 


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