Colorado Canine CO-OP
A cooperative of canine resources in Colorado
1-888-532-6967 Canine dispatching service for Colorado law enforcement, EMS, and search managers only. Available 24/7 through mutual aid request.
- Who qualifies to be part of the COOP dispatching system?
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- Resources are verified through their certification organization or local agency. Most teams in the state are certified through SARDOC, SARDUS, and NASAR. Other groups within the COOP use other means of certification and will verify their resources prior to entry into the system.
- Each individual resource must have a procedure in place to be dispatched under their agency's authority. SARDUS and SARDOC already have these procedures in place. A CSAR request already comes with the mutual aid agreements in place. If a request from a law enforcement or fire agency is made through the COOP this will be a verbal mutual aid request from the agency to the resource's agency until formalized. The on-call person will clarify this request at the initial interview. For many dog teams this may be a simple procedure, such as of when they receive a request for a mutual aid search, they contact their agency supervisors to get permission to respond to the search- this is all done by the individual searcher. The COOP will not contact each SAR group to make this request during the dispatching process.
- A responding resource will act under the color of authority of the agency they belong to, following their policies and procedures. They must have worker's comp insurance. There are some exceptions to the workman's comp rule, such as law enforcement activities that do not fall under the Colorado statue covering SAR activities. But many of these agencies will want insurance coverage as well.
- Complaints, compliments, or anything that comes from a search will be handled between the search manager, the resource and the resources agency. The COOP will facilitate the process as needed.
- Independent dog teams will not be part of the COOP system. All teams must have a County SAR organization or other agency to stand behind their training, their certifications and provide worker's comp insurance.
- Teams that do not belong to a member of the COOP but belong to a county-sponsored SAR team (for example- they certify through NAPWADA) are eligible to join the COOP dispatching procedure. They will need to provide a written letter from the management of their organization stating that they certify the resources Typing qualifications, that they are eligible to be utilized on a mutual aid basis and that they are covered by worker's comp insurance.
- Any non-county SAR agencies not part of the COOP will have an opportunity to join the COOP with a review of their policies, procedures, and certification guidelines.
- TYPING SYSTEM
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- A Typing system has been developed to help with communication and deployment of canine resources. Much of this was based on what the NIMS canine subcommittee had already developed but not implemented. Also, systems were borrowed from other states that had gone through this process such as California that has gone through this process. This Typing system addresses the qualifications of both handler and dog. Here is a link to the Typing system used by the COOP.