‘This is what I want to do’ — Q&A with K-9 handler Ben Macisso

SOUTH PORTLAND — There’s a new officer on patrol in South Portland fresh out of the police academy – a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois named is Ralph.

As the latest addition to the city’s K-9 program, Ralph has worked a daily beat since his June 8 graduation alongside handler Ben Macisso, a Scarborough native and nine-year veteran of the force. Last week, Macissio took time to tell us how Ralph is doing and what it’s like to be part of a K-9 team, a job that he calls the fulfillment of a boyhood dream.

Q: What inspired you to become a K-9 officer?

A: Ever since I was a little kid I wanted to become a police officer and part of that allure to the profession was seeing officers with K-9s. I was just kind of always drawn to it. When I was 18, I got a female German Shepherd from a local breeder and started doing obedience training with her, along with things like agility work and what-not. From that point on I was like, this is awesome, this is what I want to do. So, I thought, if I can become a policeman, that would be great, but then, secondly, if I can get in a position as a K-9 handler, then that’s what I’d like to do.

Q: How many K-9s are there now in South Portland?

A: We have four teams. One is an explosive-detection K-9, one specializes in narcotics detections, and the other two are “dual purpose” patrol and narcotics-detection teams. For those, the primary purpose is patrol work – tracking, apprehension, officer protection, things like that, and then they also can be used for detection of narcotics.

Q: What type of dog do you have and what is its name?

A: His name is Ralph and he’s a patrol/narcotics K-9. We picked him up last August just prior to his first birthday. He’s a Belgian Malinois.

Q: What type of breed is that?

A: It’s very similar to German Shepherds in the sense that it’s a herding breed, they’re very protective, very intelligent, and they love their families in the same way, but he’s smaller – about 65 pounds. With that smaller size, you lose a little bit of raw strength, but you gain agility, endurance and speed. That smaller size really comes in handy when we are doing searches because he’s able to get into a lot of nooks and crannies that a larger dog would not be able to. He would jump onto a bookshelf and try and climb up to the ceiling if he thought there was something up there for him. He’s really good like that.

Q: How did the department obtain Ralph?

A: After the handler is selected by the department, we then begin the process of finding a K-9. With budgets a big concern the last few years, we really try to exhaust all options in finding funding and getting a good price. Sometimes, you’ll luck out and get a dog that’s donated by a family that has an animal they just can’t handle, and in that case we’ll evaluate it to see if it’s suitable for our needs. This time, there were no donated dogs that were what we were looking for. So, we contacted a reputable broker, a person who goes to Europe, tests canines, and brings them back to the states for the ATF, the border patrol, the Secret Service, state police and local departments. Ralph came from the Czech Republic.

Q: How much did he cost?

A: Ralph was about $6,000. That’s expensive for you and I to pay for a pet, but for police departments nationally, that’s a really good price. The South Portland Lions Club was gracious enough to give us a donation of $1,500 that went toward the purchase and some related equipment that we really needed. Really, our K-9 program would not exist without that public support. We try to go about the program in the most economically responsible way.

Q: So, the rest of the purchase was budget by the department?

A: Actually, Ralph also was purchased using drug forfeiture money. … I think that’s really kind of poetic justice.

Q: Was Ralph bred to be a police dog?

A: In a sense. Training for K-9s actually begins from day one. The breeders immediately expose the dogs to stimulus – like slippery floors, different lighting, different sounds and different textures, like rugs, dirt and pavement. We take this for granted, but when you think about what a police K-9 has to go through, and the environments they have to work in, we can’t have them being affected by it being dark and feeling uncomfortable, or not wanting to go under tables or on top of tables. Drugs, bombs, bad guys – they could be anywhere at any time.

Q: Do they get any other initial training, to test their aptitude?

A: As they age, the breeders will do different training with them, like getting them to play tug-of-war with a towel and things like that. They also throw balls to bring out different drives that are instinctual in canines. It’s really important that they want to play with balls and chase them because that’s their reward for everything they do. If they don’t care about the ball, they’re not really going to work for it.

Q: So, they don’t get food as an incentive?

A: Explosives dogs are sometimes rewarded with food, but narcotics and patrol dogs are primarily only rewarded with a toy. It could be a tug toy or a ball.

Q: What kind of personality does Ralph have?

A: He’s really good with my family, but he’s pretty standoffish with other people, and aggressive sometimes. So, I have to be really careful of what I do with him and who he’s around. Every dog is a little bit different. With Ralph, I really don’t allow children to pet him. After all, when we see little kids while we’re out and about we want to inspire them, not scare them. That would be counter to the mission to serve and protect.

Q: But he’s been OK around your children?

A: It’s really been great, there’ve been no issue. I have two girls, ages 5 and 4, and they love Ralph. He’s their best friend. They love being with him and seeing him go to work with dad.

Q: How have you and Ralph bonded?

A: When I picked him up in August, we first spent a few weeks integrating him into my family. During that time we tried not to put him under any pressure. I just lived with him and fed him. We played ball. He got to know me, I got to know him. The bonding period takes some time because these kinds of dogs are alpha males. As such, they don’t particularly want to take orders from anybody. Sometimes they're bullheaded and they want to do their own thing. But, we look for that in the dog, because we want to know that he’ll be conformable working independently of me.

Q: What does Ralph do independent of you?

A: Let’s say I’m on patrol and I see a window smashed out of a convenience store. I can send Ralph in and he’ll go look for the bad guy, if there’s one in there, and apprehend him. He’s going to be all alone doing that. I’m outside where it's safe and he’s in harm’s way. So, he has to be OK with that. He has to be confident. He has to be clear on what he’s doing. And, most important, he has to want to be there.

Q: What training did you go through as a team?

A: We started with an eight-week narcotics detection school that took place with several departments here in South Portland. … That training ended in November and then we spent a large part of November through February working the road, on patrol and doing narcotic detections. Then, this spring we went though the basic police K-9 patrol school. That was a 12-week school that also took place in South Portland.

Q: What did that class entail?

A: It involved a lot of obedience training. Then, we did some tracking – for bad people and for the elderly or lost children. And then, finally, we did what we call the bite work, or the controlled aggression phase, where the dogs are trained to apprehend suspects and protect their handler.

Q: So, the dogs are actually trained to bite?

A: In reality, bites really are not that common. That’s maybe 1/100th of what we do. Maybe down in Boston that’s more the role of what K-9s do, but not in Maine. Still, we do rely on the K-9 to do that job. If you’re on the side of the road at a traffic stop and you get attacked, you want something that’s going to be able to protect you. It’s like firearms – there are not a lot of police shootings in Maine, thankfully, but we still need to train the heck out of it.

Q: Does Ralph work every day?

A: Yes, every day he comes to work with me, and every day he goes home with me. The back seat of the cruiser has been modified to a kennel that both secures and protects him. … He really loves to come to work.  

Q: How much pressure is involved in being a K-9 handler?

A: As rewarding and fun as it is, it’s very stressful and demanding in the sense that, when the K-9 shows up you're kind of on stage, in the eyes of the public and you’re fellow officers. Everyone is expecting you to perform. And I hold myself to a high standard, too. I want to be a good handler and a good K-9 team. I want to find the bad guy. I want to find the drugs, if they're there.

Q: How does it feel to have achieved your boyhood dream?

A: it’s kind of surreal, I would say. I don’t want to take it for granted, but it has to be treated as a routine. I can’t every day go to work just so overwhelmed and impressed with myself. We have a job to do. We have to focus on that. Still, this is what I’ve always wanted to do and here we are doing it. What a great thing that is.