PORT CHARLOTTE — Charlotte County Sheriff Bill Prummell heard pleas from middle and high school students who want vape-free campuses.
Prummell, who receives tips from a cellphone app called FortifyFL designed for students to report suspicious activity, asked his staff to investigate if the Charlotte County Public Schools could use another tool to reduce vaping at the facilities.
His solution was to train a dog to sniff backpacks and lockers for the scents of vape devices.
It only took 10 minutes to learn the district’s leadership was interested.
Last week, the Sheriff’s Office introduced Mila, a 15-month-old Labrador retriever who underwent 200 hours of training to learn to sniff and alert an officer about vaping paraphernalia.
Mila’s handler, Sgt. Steve Burke, believes there are only three dogs in the state that use a vape-sniffing K9 in schools.
Burke and Mila performed a demonstration of the dog’s skills during a recent School Board meeting. He stood near Mila as she sniffed five backpacks spread on the floor of the board’s meeting room in Murdock.