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Dog's tennis ball key to DuPage courthouse security

Every morning Deputy Ken Diebert prepares for his courthouse duty by strapping on his usual 12 pounds of gear: Kevlar vest, handcuffs and stun gun. But he also holsters the one true key to courthouse security: a squeaky tennis ball.

Diebert, a member of the DuPage County sheriff's explosives squad, and his partner Jewel, a 75-pound, 5-year-old German shepherd, patrol the DuPage County courthouse before the first of thousands of daily visitors and employees arrive. And Jewel loves nothing more than her tennis ball.

Every flower pot and garbage can is swept for explosives. The mail room is sniffed and courtrooms are checked for any of the 19,000 explosive chemical formulations Jewel is trained to sniff out.

"Our job consists of checking out unattended bags, unattended briefcases, anything left outside; it's our job to sweep it, secure it and make sure everything's good," Diebert said. "She only gets this ball when she finds explosives. That's the only time she sees the ball. And she loves this ball more than anything in the world. We went through a lot of toys, in training, only to find out she loves this tennis ball."

And to keep Jewel on the ball, as it were, Diebert occasionally will hide traces of an explosive. When Jewel finds it - and she always does - she's rewarded with her favorite toy.

Jewel is the only explosives dog in the state to be stationed in a courthouse, said John Bertuca, DuPage County Sheriff K9 Unit Training Cmdr.

Chief Deputy Anthony Romanelli, who oversees court security, said he appreciates the sense of security she provides.

"This is the bottom of the funnel. Everyone comes here, whether you're the victim, the defendant, or in a nasty divorce with your wife," he said. "All of that stuff happens here, and this is the only place where all of the pieces of the puzzle come together in one building other than the original incident. A lot of emotion runs through the small city in this building."

The program has worked so well, Romanelli said, his office has been working with Lake County officials to return K9 deputies to the Lake County courthouse.

Lake County Undersheriff Ray Rose said officials hope to deploy a narcotics dog by the first of the year, followed by an explosives dog by May.

"Certainly the perception of a dog is very powerful, and part of what is causing me to lean toward starting with a drug or contraband dog is that our court officers walk the building, inside and out every day," he said. "You'd be surprised what people try to hide in flower pots. It seems right now, we have more bang for the buck with a drug dog, and we'll establish our benchmark from there."

It's pretty rare for explosives to be found, though. In fact, Jewel has never located any ill-intentioned explosives while on patrol at the DuPage courthouse.

"Here's the thing with explosives dogs: 80 percent of their job is basically deterrence. It's not like a narcotics dog where a majority of the populace has narcotics versus explosives," he said. "For them to bring explosives in their pockets into here is going to be slim to none, but that's why we're here.

"The bad guys are always figuring something out. But even if they're changing the chemical combinations at a molecular level, Jewel can still determine that it's an explosive substance."

Jewel's also pretty sly when she does hit on explosives. Anyone other than Diebert likely wouldn't even notice, until you heard her squeaking her ball.

"Jewel is trained in silent detection," said Lt. Jim Mendrick, who oversees the department's K9 division. "She won't disturb something because you don't want the dog to initiate contact and set it off, so it's called a passive alert. The dog is going to sit and point at it but not cause a problem."

Jewel also works outside the courthouse at crime scenes, recovering guns, bullets and shell casings.

"If there's a weapon discharged, she can find a shell casing from the bullet so we can get fingerprints off the shell casing," Mendrick said. "If a weapon was discharged, the gunpowder is one of the elements the dog has imprinted on her."

Jewel's nose has worked a little too well on occasion, particularly during school locker checks.

"She's hit a locker because a poor kid walked through Chemlawn on the way to school," Mendrick said. "Certain fertilizers are a basic component of a device, so the dog will even hit someone whose Chemlawn shoes are in the locker."

Imprinting a dog and training it to Jewel's level can cost as much as $15,000 and takes countless weeks. Even now, Jewel attends weekly, organized training.

"If you don't use it, you lose it, so we train regularly on all of the explosives in the spectrum," Diebert said. "If anything new comes into the spectrum, we're notified, and we imprint it on her to make sure that we're up to date."

Despite the hard work and extra dedication required to handle the K9 deputies, Diebert, who trained as many as six dogs in the military, wouldn't have it any other way.

"To this day I'd rather have a K9 partner than another person," he said. "With a dog, I don't have to listen to anyone else's problems. A dog is almost always happy."

The work, Diebert says, is what makes dogs happy.

"I don't treat the working dogs like pets because I want them to know that (the courthouse) is where the fun is," he said. "I want her to be happy going to work and this is where the work is. When we say work, that's play for her."

Still, some question that.

"Every day, someone will come up to me and say something like, 'Oh, look at that poor dog. She must be miserable,' while she's standing next to me and I'll ask them where their dog is," he said. "When they tell me their dog is at home in a cage, while mine is always at my side, I look at them and smile."

  Jewel checks every garbage can, flower pot, nook and cranny of the DuPage County Courthouse. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  DuPage County Deputy Ken Diebert and Jewel patrol the courthouse every morning before judges, employees and visitors arrive. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  DuPage County Deputy Ken Diebert likes having a K9 as a partner. "A dog is almost always happy." Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  DuPage County Deputy Ken Diebert hides explosive fragments during courthouse rounds. Keeping Jewel's nose on the alert is key to her success. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  The key to DuPage County courthouse security is this tennis ball carried in Deputy Ken Diebert's utility belt. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
  When Jewel detects explosives, she gets her favorite toy, a green tennis ball. Jewel is the only explosives dog in the state to be stationed in a courthouse, said John Bertuca, DuPage County Sheriff K9 Unit Training Commander. Scott Sanders/ssanders@dailyherald.com
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