HUNTINGTON BEACH : Vote Expected on Use of Dogs to Sniff Drugs

Trustees in the Huntington Beach Union High School District are expected to vote tonight on whether to use police dogs to sniff for drugs in student lockers and cars at the district’s seven campuses.

If it is approved, officials said they expect to initiate the program next month at all district high schools in Huntington Beach, Westminster and Fountain Valley.

The police departments in Fountain Valley and Westminster and the Orange County Probation Department have agreed to provide dogs in the joint effort, which is believed to be the first of its kind in Orange County.

Board of Trustees President Jerry Sullivan said Monday that he has received only positive comments from community members since the proposal to use dogs as a drug deterrent was made public last month.

“People are fed up with crime, killing and drug-related crimes. They want us to get tougher. We are reaping the whirlwind of a permissive society,” he said in an interview.

Sullivan said no specific incidents have triggered the action. But results of undercover operations at local schools in past years indicate that there is a drug problem that is “under the surface,” he said.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. Charles R. Poe said that if school officials approve the anti-drug proposal, the Police Department expects “to go public” to raise money to pay for training a police dog to sniff out weapons at schools that have been hit by scattered violence in recent months.