Sniffin' around: Police canines train in former Cottage Grove city hall building

• Dog starts search

Police officer Nick Kent of Forest Lake and canine partner Ranger begin a training exercise in the former Cottage Grove City Hall building last week. Cottage Grove hosted a number of law enforcement agencies for the drills. Bulletin photo by Scott Wente
• Drug search

Hudson police officer Bob Larson and his canine partner, Brisco, sweep a room during a drug search training exercise at the former city hall building in Cottage Grove on Wednesday, Jan. 9. Authorities from a number of area cities and counties participated and said the vacant building worked well for canine training because it is unfamiliar to most of the dogs and has an unusual floor plan with many small offices and storage spaces. Methamphetamine and cocaine were used in the search exercise. Bulletin photo by Scott Wente

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Cottage Grove’s former city hall building is proving valuable while vacant for at least one group: law enforcement.

A few weeks after a SWAT team practiced in the building, police canine officers from surrounding cities and counties searched for hiding suspects and stashed narcotics in a recent training exercise.

Cottage Grove police canine handler Mike Vandervort, who helped to organize the training, said the building works well for their drills because it’s mostly empty and has an unusual floor plan with many small rooms and storage areas.

The building also is unfamiliar to most of the officers, which is good for training.

Training included officers from Cottage Grove, Washington County, Stillwater, Forest Lake and authorities from Hudson and Pierce and St. Croix counties in Wisconsin.

They practiced three exercises: two suspect searches, one in the lower level and one in the former administrative area; and a drug search using seized methamphetamine and cocaine hidden in rooms that used to house the police department.

The building’s service as law enforcement training ground may be short-lived: the city hopes to open its Business Enterprise Center there this spring.

Tags: crime and courts, cottage grove, updates, crime