(MTA photo)
STORMVILLE – A new 17,000 square foot facility to train Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police K-9s formally opened in Stormville on Wednesday.
Until now, MTA police dogs were trained in various locations including the Orange County Sheriff’s Office K-9 school.
MTA Police Chief Michael Coan said the new center is designed to meet “the unique demands of patrolling the MTA’s railroads, stations, subways, platforms and buses, making it the only state-of-the-art ‘mass transit’ specific canine training center in the nation.”
Canine Center Director Lt. John Kerwick said the planning began shortly after the 9/11 attacks.
Trained police dogs are the best defense to prevent terrorist bomb threats, he said. As new threats surface, the dogs are trained to identify them, he said.
The structure of a dog’s nose gives it a sense of smell that is 3,000 to 5,000 times stronger than the human nose, allowing them to detect explosives and follow a scent trail untraceable to humans, even breaking down specific scents. Authorities said canines can do in minutes what can take hours for humans to do when searching for explosives or other evidence in crimes.
“The new training facility is a powerfully important investment in public safety,” said James Sedore, Dutchess County’s representative on the MTA board.
