DHS Canines Visit the Hill

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee welcomed its four-legged friends to the Hill today to demonstrate their talents in the  Dogs of DHS: How Canine Programs Contribute to Homeland Security hearing.

 

Also present at the hearing were witnesses from the Transportation Security Agency, Government Accountability Office and Customs and Border Protection testifying about the merits of canine programs at DHS in airports nationwide.

A few dogs demonstrated their talents for the committee, including Reverso, a dog who partners with Transportation Security Agency (TSA) inspector Doug Timberlake to sniff out bombs at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport near D.C. 

Timberlake expressed his satisfaction for the canine program at TSA, saying “"There's no machine that can detect explosive materials the way a canine can," Timberlake said at the hearing. "[The machines] cannot reason and problem-solve to find the source of the substance."

In all, TSA has 997 funded National Explosives Detection Canine teams working points of entry, according to Kimberly Hutchinson, deputy assistant administrator of TSA's Office of Training and Development. 

 

 

A photo posted by Dept. of Homeland Security (@dhsgov) on Jan 29, 2016 at 2:15pm PST