Issue: Adapting police vehicles for K9 units called to crimes in progress.

Vancouver's K9 unit is the oldest in Canada, and its members now respond to crimes in progress 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - robberies, breaking and entering, assaults and car thefts - to name a few.

"We respond when there is potential that the suspect will run. Trust me, no one can outrun our dogs," says Constable Bruce Rhode.

His counterparts in the U.S. tell him that they use dogs less often to track suspects in the city. Many other departments train their dogs to "bark and hold" a suspect.

"Liability issues seem to be less common in Canada," Rhode says. "Our dogs are trained to 'bite and hold,' to reduce the chances that an armed suspect will harm a dog, bystander or us."

The K9 team is tested and must validate every year on the city streets. "The 'quarry' runs eight blocks, 'escaping' through houses, down alleys and over fences before the constable and canine partner begin to track 20 minutes later," Rhode says.

Getting to crime scenes, however, presents its own dilemmas. K9 teams drive to crimes-in-progress with lights and sirens blazing in order to arrive on scene as quickly as possible without endangering the public.

At the same time, once they near the scene of an ongoing crime, they need to approach as stealthily as possible.

Approach: Sgt. Gord Park and Sgt. Gord McGuinness (in charge of the VPD K9 unit) asked team members to find solutions to address all these issues.

The members selected the 2005 Chevy Tahoe (Police Package) for its size and strength, as well as for the fact that a lot of civilians drive them, so they are not obvious "police cars".

Then they equipped the vehicles with Code 3 SuperVisor LED lighting for three reasons:

1. Brightness. "They're far superior to our older strobe technology. Even on a bright sunny day, the guys are noticing people pulling over two blocks ahead," Rhode says.


2. Reliability. With only seven vehicles for 19 officers, the unit can't afford accidents or equipment breakdowns.


3. Stealth. Hidden until needed. SuperVisors are mounted behind the windshield under the visors rather than on the roof.

"We can be big, loud and obnoxious when we want to be noticed, and relatively anonymous when we don't," Rhode concludes.