So much for good intentions. One shortcoming of the hotel we were staying in is a lack of in-room high-speed internet access. To get internet access you have to climb down the hill to the lobby and connect there, so after long days of training, that became a less than inviting option. That's why there were no posts after the first day. Our training schedule ran from 10am - 8pm most nights, so we were a bit tired when we got back.

We sit here now, on Saturday afternoon, in the restaurant bar of the Best Western Emerald Beach Hotel, waiting for 5pm to come in order to check in. We were supposed to be back in NC by today, however, the weather event on the east coast prevented our flying out, as all flights from Miami were cancelled to RDU on friday and saturday, and the best re-booking option ended up being Tuesday morning. So we moved out of the Point Pleasant Resort and came to the Best Western for the last two days of our extended trip.

On this trip we accomplished a lot. The 5 dogs we sold to St. Thomas, with the leadership of Sgt. Gonzales and Trainer Ecedro Lindquist, look great 3 months out from their handler courses. The green handlers have improved their handling, and the dogs have advanced. We were very happy to see that we could spend a majority of our time training with them in scenario-based training exercises. There were very few issues that needed remediation. The 2 new dogs we brought performed well. The black GSD took a few days to aclimatize, but when he did, he looked sharp, civil, and has a hell of a grip.

My new FLIP video camera has taken about 140 videos of our time here, and as we are going to be marooned on this island for a couple more nights, I will be uploading them for all to see.

While here, we rode along with the SRT teams to a few calls, one being a gang-related homicide, another was automatic gunfire, and as we were leaving our very last training session, were able to listen to the radio traffic as one of our dogs, K9 Taiphun & Handler James Dowe, were able to flush a burglery suspect from a perimetered wooded area to patrol officers for arrest and a nice apprehension.

The K9 officers here have to contend with very thick brush, of jungle-like consistency, and a very dense population on an island of only 32 square miles. Outside of the resort areas, there are some really hardcore gangs and really bad guys out there. Their per-capita homocide rate is one of the highest in the US (VI being a US Territory). The police here are dedicated, and the police administration is serious about attacking crime here, and the re-emergence of the K9 unit is one of the steps they are taking to fight crime here.

The K9 training we did incorporated night-time apprehensions, bailouts, multiple subject apprehensions, recall exercises, tactical applications of obedience skills, building searches, area searches, cadaver, explosives and narcotics detection in a variety of venues, and some tracking.  On monday of last week, the sister island of St. Croix sent their 3 handlers over with the three dogs they also got from us, and I wish we had more time to work with them, as they came only for the second week of training.

Jeff and Rob at TK9 did a great job working with these guys, and put out a good product. I got to see for myself the quality work they put in (along with all the others that contributed to the USVI handler course and training and preparation of the dogs, including Kyli, Janet, and Matt). I am proud of all of them for their work and dedication to be the best.

Videos will be posted soon on our photobucket account, and once we are back, on the website.

I hear it is below 20 degrees on most of the east coast.....sorry for your bad luck, we're at the beach, yo!!

Jeff and I arrived without incident into St. Thomas, and were met by our friends from the VIPD to take the last 2 dogs on the contract, and give us a ride to the hotel. Being that it was late, around 9:30pm. we couldnt see much of the island from the roads.

We got to the hotel, and discovered that everything on the island shuts down around 10:00, and someone could make a fortune if they started an after-hours delivery service here.  We went to bed hungry and had a comfortable night's rest.

Our accomodations are on the top of a large hillside overlooking the bay, but it wasn't until the next morning that the full glory of the landscape was revealed to us. The water is a beautiful deep blue-green, and the lush hillsides that surround the bay, as well as the numerous uninhabited Cays, lend such depth to the view. Our room balcony stays in shade most of the day, and the warm breeze comes right to us being so nice and high above the water.

We ventured out this morning in search of something to eat and came to the hotel lobby for a quick bite before descending down the hill to the waterside where we ate and enjoyed the view of the bay. The walk back to the room was challenging as it is all uphill on winding roads for about a half mile, or you take some steep stairs cut into the hillside. All in all, though a very nice place to have to work.

Our hosts picked us up, and we doid some food shopping, since we are here for 2 weeks, we chose an efficiency. We are scheduled for a meet and greet with the police commissioner's asst. and some other big wigs this afternoon. Links to pics and more to come tomorrow!

http://www.policeone.com/explosives-eod/articles/1988568-Answering-criticism-of-explosive-detection-machines-and-K-9s/

Layered approaches to security are needed. Terrorists are rational problem solvers, and will work to stay ahead of our systems, we need to layer systems to reduce the probability of a successful attempt. As it is now, we are completely "reactive" to these events, scurrying about after the Christmas day attempt - talking up body scanners and other technologies, as if we shouldn;t have bee talking about this all along.

Further, I believe private-public partnerships can reduce costs and bring better screening. The new found American belief that only government can keep them safe is wrong headed. In Europe private security companies run all kinds of security in transportation networks, and are skilled and successful. It is time we start realizing that government cannot be the only entity to keep us safe, and as their mission increases in complexity, so does the bureaucracy which thwarts the mission. Government by its nature is very inefficient at solving problems of this kind, and we should at least talk about public - private partnerships.