He’s been a shift supervisor in jail for 14 years, but the last year he’s had a new partner by his side.
Lt. Perry Allen now works with Murphy, a two-and-a-half year old German Shepherd.
He works in the Washington County, Tennessee Detention Center.
“He has tripled my work load, but I’m telling you I wouldn’t trade it for anything. He has made such a difference,” says Allen.
http://liarcatchers.com/drugdogsweeps.html
Murphy’s job is to sniff out drugs like marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine, plus other contraband that is sometimes smuggled behind bars.
His bark echoes through the halls announcing his presence and that is sometimes all it takes, “Murphy is our way to keep them out. He’s a deterrent. They know he can find it so it’s a deterrent,” adds Allen.
But he’s not just a drug dog, Murphy can be used to help keep the jail employees safe.
“If we have someone barricade himself inside a cell, instead of sending an officer in there, if they have a weapon or something, I can put his vest on and send him in and he can subdue the subject until we come in,” says Allen.
Lt. Allen says Murphy has made a big difference at the jail not only with the inmates, but the jail employees as well.
Murphy is the first of his kind in the region, “He’s rare. We’ve done a lot of research and we can’t find any local that has a dog issued to the county jail,” explains Allen.
We’ve also learned Murphy was born in the Czech Republic and he is trained to respond to commands given in two different languages.
