A new law enforcement officer is preparing for duty at the Bucks County Correctional Center. The recruit is now in rigorous training for a specified task: preventing drugs from entering the facility. Off duty, however, this professional — a unnamed male Belgian Malinois — is expected to enjoy belly rubs and naps in the sun. Jo Ciavaglia handled the details in the Bucks County Courier Times.

The K-9 resource, the first in the Doylestown correctional center’s history, is still a pup. He will soon be schooled in the finer points of scent identification of drugs by experts at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Illegal drugs in correctional institutions are a nationwide problem, exposing inmates and staff to violence and health risks.

Narcotic substances can be smuggled into jail by soaking innocuous paper materials — letters from home, books, periodicals — with a drug. Once inside, the illegal pharmaceuticals are reconstituted into a salable commodity.

The K-9 officers employed to prevent that kind of entry are scent trained to react to their odors, no matter how faintly they may have been diluted.

The Bucks County Correctional Center dog is expected to begin service next month.

More on this story is at the Bucks County Courier Times.