Research: Going on a Ride-Along

I'm working on my new series, Danger in Destiny, which means I'm actively writing three different stories. 

Fear the Shadows - A prequel novella for newsletter subscribers only coming soon
Out of the Ashes - The first official book releases March 28th
Frozen in Jeopardy - The second book releases July 25th

While one of my characters, Officer Gabe Harrison, is featured in Frozen in Jeopardy, he actually makes an appearance in the other two books as well. He works for the Destiny Police Department as a member of the K-9 unit. He and his German shepherd partner, Loki, specialize in tracking. 

When I first started this series, I knew very little about how a K-9 unit operates within the police department. I did a lot of online research, but information wasn't easy to find. That's when I decided to reach out to our local police department. 

I spoke with Lt. Moran who not only answered some of my questions, but he suggested I go on a ride-along with one of the K-9 units and put me in touch with Officer Timothy Cox and his dog, Barco. 
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I was fortunate to be able to go on a four hour ride-along with Officer Cox and Barco a couple of weeks ago.

Not only was Officer Cox super helpful when it came to understanding how he and Barco are involved in the every day workings of the police department, but I got to see how their vehicle is set up, including the kennel that Barco rides in.

I also learned a lot about how police dogs are trained and even got to watch Barco perform a drug search. It gave me a great deal of respect not only for what the dog can do, but for all of the hard work that goes into what the handler does to train the dog and read his reactions in order to track effectively. 

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Later in the evening, I had the chance to ask some questions directly related to a few scenes I had planned. In several cases, not only did I come away with more details, but I even had to alter the basic situation simply because that's not how it would really work. It's important to me to make the scenes as realistic as possible, so having that clarity was huge.

For example, there's a scene in Out of the Ashes where someone breaks into a house. I originally had Gabe and Loki going in and clearing the home. Instead, I learned that they would wait for backup and then go in with at least one other officer. 

I'm excited to apply everything I've learned to this series, and I look forward to being able to share the books with all of you!

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