FGCU Professor Creates National Database of Police, Work Dog Research; Canine Performance Offered April 9 in Recognition
4/2/2004

FORT MYERS, FL - The media is invited to attend a performance of retired police dog Rommel, presented by Florida Gulf Coast University criminal justice professor Charles Mesloh and his Introduction to Law Enforcement class, 9 a.m., Friday, April 9 in Academic Building III Room 124, to highlight Mesloh's development of a searchable database about police and search dogs.

Mesloh is creating the National Canine Research Database for law enforcement officers, researchers and the general public. Visitors to the free Internet site will to be able to read published articles that until now were inaccessible outside of the higher education environment.

Anyone with an Internet connection will be able to access the database. The goal of the site is to make it possible for people who are not affiliated with a university to have access to articles that are difficult to find.

In addition to creating partnerships between university researchers and police dog handlers around the country, university students will have the opportunity to participate in scholarly activities by conducting research on behalf of specific law enforcement agency requests.

Mesloh anticipates the program will be fully operational by fall 2004.

Mesloh is a former law enforcement canine handler and noted national author on the subject of police dogs, publishing over 90 percent of the canine-related articles on the National Criminal Justice Reference Service Web site www.ncjrs.org .

Research Mesloh released last month at the 41st annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (www.acjs.org ) shows recent practices mandated by the U.S. Department of Justice to local police units do not help in curbing unnecessary canine bites during subject apprehension and may actually cause the opposite effect. The results of Mesloh's research affect nearly 80 percent of the 9,000 police canines in service.

Media representatives planning to attend the canine performance should RSVP to Mesloh, or call for a personal demonstration.

For more information, contact Mesloh at (239) 590-7761 or cmesloh@fgcu.edu .

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