Lawmaker asks how K-9 unit formed without approval

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Monday, April 21, 2008 10:21 AM CDT

MADISON — The State Patrol should have sought legislative approval before creating a K-9 unit in 2006, a lawmaker said.

Rep. Kitty Rhoades, R-Hudson, is co-chair of the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee and wants an explanation of how the K-9 unit got started without legislative oversight.

"No one is questioning the value of the program," Rhoades said. "But how many other programs are there out there that state agencies, or state officials, started on their own?"

Rhoades wants State Patrol Superintendent Dave Collins or another official to discuss how the program started and what it will cost in the future.

Collins said he made an enforcement decision to start the K-9 unit that will eventually have seven dogs _ one for each regional Patrol post. Five dogs are already in use, with two more being trained to sniff out illegal drugs in vehicles.

But Collins said when the Legislature gave the State Patrol permission to spend Federal Motor Safety Carrier Administration money, lawmakers lost the right to dictate exactly how it was spent.

"That enforcement decision doesn't rise to the level of a Joint Finance (Committee) vote," Collins said. "My question if I was Kitty Rhoades or a taxpayer is, 'How come the State Patrol wasn't doing this in 1979 or '89?'"

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