Police Dog

He might have been bored, lonely or just plain mischievous. Only Leo, a Baltimore County police dog, knows why he unlatched his kennel Monday night, pushed open a door at the county canine facility and trotted off into the streets. His escape prompted a five-hour search that included officers from a nearby precinct, officers from the special operations division and a helicopter, county police said yesterday. And had it not been for a woman who specializes in tracking down missing dogs, Leo might still be on the lam. Around 6:30 p.m. Monday, an alarm went off at the Baltimore County Police Department's K-9 Unit on Park Drive in the Baltimore Highlands area.

WASHINGTON - Using a police dog to sniff a car's exterior for drugs does not violate the privacy rights of a stopped motorist, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday, even if the officers had no reason to suspect the car and its driver were carrying drugs. When added to prior rulings, the Supreme Court's 6-2 decision appears to give police broad, but not unlimited, authority to use canines to sniff for drugs - or bombs - whether on roads or in schools, airports and office buildings. Although the case before the court was argued as a test of police power in the war on drugs, dogs also play an important role in the war on terrorism.

Anne Arundel County police say one of two Pasadena men accused of slashing a dog's throat last week might have committed the act to intimidate an old girlfriend. Robert Lee Grim, 25, of the 100 block of Arundel Road purposely hurt the dog and then left evidence of the attack - a bloody towel - on the doorstep of a Millersville home where his former girlfriend had been staying, police spokesman Sgt. Shawn Urbas said. The dog, which survived and is expected to make a full recovery, was not owned by Grim's ex-girlfriend, whom court records identify as Sue Cantu.

Terrance Patrick Cahill, an animal trainer who assisted in the growth of Baltimore and Washington's police dog programs, died in his sleep Saturday at his Towson home. He was 95. Born in London, England, and orphaned as a child, he joined the Metropolitan Police Force in the early 1930s and became a constable, or bobby. He worked through the German bombing of London during World War II. During the wartime blackout, he rode a bicycle on his post. "He told me, `I was never sure whether I'd come home or come home to a home,'" said a friend, James Matarese, who is member of the U.S. Park Police in Washington.

A 24-year-old Lansdowne man was injured yesterday in a shooting that prompted officials to lock the doors at Lansdowne-area schools, Baltimore County police said. Police said the shooting, at the victim's Lansdowne home, does not appear to be a random act. After the gunman fled, a police dog followed a trail close to several schools. As a precaution, police asked administrators of Lansdowne Middle, Lansdowne Elementary and Riverview Elementary schools to lock their doors for a short time, said Officer Shawn Vinson, a county police spokesman.

WASHINGTON - When a police dog sniffs the air to detect drugs, is it conducting a police search? The Supreme Court said yesterday that it will decide. The Constitution forbids "unreasonable searches" by the police, and in the past the high court has said officers may not search a car for drugs unless they have some reason to suspect the motorist is breaking the law. In November, the Illinois Supreme Court threw out drug charges against a motorist who was stopped for speeding on Interstate 80. After one officer had stopped the car, a second police officer arrived and circled the car with a "drug-detection dog."

The Harford County Sheriff's Office is confident that when faced with the threat of an explosive device, it has the right man for the job. In this case, however, the right man is a dog: Elliot, a chocolate Labrador retriever. "A dog's nose is so far beyond a human's, it's hard to comprehend," said Deputy 1st Class John Seilback, a member of the sheriff's canine unit. "When you have pizza delivered, you smell pizza. A dog smells the dough, the sauce, the cheese, the delivery boy ... and scents wafting in from the street," Seilback said.

In Baltimore County Name of man killed by newspaper van released by police PARKVILLE -- Baltimore County police identified the man hit by a newspaper delivery van as Edward Hairsine, 62, of the first block of Clearlake Court. Hairsine was outside his house when the driver of a Chevrolet van delivering The Sun backed into him Monday, police said. Hairsine died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center. No charges have been filed against the 38-year-old van driver, police said. Villa Julie event to focus on U.S. foreign policy STEVENSON -- Villa Julie College will play host to a panel discussion at 10 a.m. today on how personal relationships within the United States influence the government's foreign policy agenda.

A four-hour standoff at a Jessup home between Howard County police and a 19-year-old man suspected of robbing an armored truck employee at a nearby bank ended peacefully yesterday after he came out of the house and was questioned and released. Police did not charge the man, whom they refused to identify. About 10:30 a.m., a Brink's Inc. employee was robbed by a man with a gun in the lobby of Wachovia Bank at 8600 Washington Blvd. in Jessup, police said. An officer immediately responded to the scene with a police dog, who picked up a scent and followed it behind the Columbia Junction shopping plaza into deep woods and onto a trail that led to a house about a quarter-mile away.