Westfield K-9 officer Chris Coach and his partner, ‘Falco’, with the assistance of K-9 teams from five area communities searched the Westfield-Vocational Technical High School last Thursday. Students were locked down for 40 minutes as police searched for contraband. (Photo by chief photographer Frederick Gore)
WESTFIELD – Students at Westfield Vocational-Technical High School were confined to their classrooms for about 40 minutes Thursday as police – and six trained dogs – roamed the school in a routine sweep to inspect for illicit drugs.
School resource officer Tracy Ploof reports that the school was locked down for the sweep, which was conducted by Westfield K-9 officer Chris Coach and his partner, ‘Falco’, with the assistance of K-9 teams from five area communities.
The dogs are trained to search for marijuana, opiates and cocaine, as well as other substances which are chemically similar.
The K-9 teams examined the shops at the school, the student lockers and the vehicles in the school’s parking lots.
Although the dogs found no contraband inside the school, the dogs alerted to three vehicles parked at the school.
All three vehicles were searched but no contraband was found.
In the first case, a student admitted that persons had smoked marijuana previously in her car but in the second case the student denied that there had been contraband in his vehicle.
The third student said that the vehicle belongs to her father and she has no knowledge what may have transpired in the car when it was not in her control.
