Officer Kris Chatterson and K-9 Sabre are Black Diamond Police Department’s first narcotics detection canine team. Officer Chatterson has been employed as a commissioned law enforcement officer for the Black Diamond Police Department since April 1997. Since then, he has been assigned to the Patrol Division. In May 2006, he was assigned to the K-9 unit in the position of narcotics K-9 handler. In January 2007, he attended the Washington State Department of Corrections Narcotics Detection Canine Handler Training Class. This class consisted of 240 hours of training in the classroom as well as practical applications.

Officer Chatterson was assigned to K-9
Sabre, a 1 year old black Labrador Retriever who was a rescue from the Pierce County Humane Society. K-9 Sabre and Officer Chatterson completed the training as a team. During training, the team completed over 526
finds of narcotic substances and training aids.

The substances trained on by the team are Marijuana, Heroin, Methamphetamine, Powder Cocaine and Crack Cocaine. K-9 Sabre is a passive alert canine, which is the manner by which most of the canines in the program are taught to alert. K-9 Sabre is taught to give a sit response after having located the specific location where the odors of narcotics are being emitted. The handler is trained to recognize the changes of behavior the canine exhibits when it begins to detect the odor of narcotics. After attending the required training with the Washington State Department of Corrections, K-9 Sabre and Officer Chatterson were certified by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission. This certification was conducted in Pierce County, Washington and was conducted by a certified and trained master K-9 instructor. In addition to the initial training, K-9 Sabre and Officer Chatterson participate in weekly training with the K-9 teams from the surrounding area.

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