K9 Sargent Prince was on the trail of someone.
After getting a big whiff of some clothing, the 5-year-old bloodhound took his handler, York County Sheriff’s Department Cpl. Shane Kauffman, on a hurried walk through the Revolution’s PeoplesBank Park in York City.
After a few minutes, Prince found sheriff’s department intern Kayla McKinney in a closet in one of the rooms in the upper part of the stadium. His reward for finding McKinney was a handful of cheesy whale crackers that she gratefully gave him.
It was a test of Prince’s abilities to do what he is mainly tasked to do — find missing children.
Prince is the face of the York County Child Abduction Response Effort — or CARE — Team, that combines talents of a number of local, state and federal agencies that respond to help find abducted, missing and endangered children. The team is staffed with volunteers from those agencies and supported by donations and fundraisers. They receive no government funding.
The CARE Team is the only U.S. Department of Justice Amber Alert Program certified team of its type in Pennsylvania and only one of 27 in the entire country. The team was formed in 2006 and became certified in 2010.
CARE Team co-coordinator Scott James said the team is available to any police agency in York County when a child goes missing.
“If a police department has a missing child and it’s bigger than what a lot of police departments are really able to handle, we are a resource for the police departments to call to bring in the things that are needed,” James said.
The CARE Team has 42 members from 22 different agencies who give their time to finding missing children. Those agencies include: York County District Attorney’s Office and Detective Bureau, York County Sheriff’s Office, West York Police Department, York Area Regional Police, West Manchester Township Police, Southern Regional Police, Pennsylvania State Police, York City Police, Northern York County Regional Police, FBI, Summit Search and Rescue, South Central Search and Rescue, York County Adult and Juvenile Probation, York County Department of Emergency Services, York County Children Youth and Families, Pennsylvania State Parole and York County Children’s Advocacy Center.
“If it’s K-9 assistance, we have the K-9s through the sheriff’s department. If it’s search and rescue, Kurtis Timmer and his guys with South Central take care of that,” James said. “Say someone is found and we want to get them back to their family, we have the Victim Witness people from the DA’s office.”
The team also can get legal guidance on things from volunteers with the DA’s office, James said.
“The CARE Team overall is positive resource for the county,” James said. “We found out pretty quickly that most departments knew there was something out there to help with missing children, but I don’t think most departments knew we were this organized and ready to help.”
CARE Team coordinator David Kahley said the team trains annually. They did a mock drill last October. They also have additional trainings through organizations like the AMBER Alert program.
“Those are primarily for our investigators, but there is also training out there for our other team members,” Kahley said.
The search and rescue teams and the dogs train constantly, he said.
“We have to make sure our training is up-to-date,” Kahley said. “That helps keep our certification.”
From its inception through 2018, Kahley said the CARE Team was only called upon to help find missing children one to three times a year.
“That has definitely jumped up a lot since we are introducing more of our resources to the local departments,” Kahley said. “We get calls a lot more.”
Last year, they helped with six searches.
“A lot of times it’s for the abduction response effort,” Kahley said, “But we also assist with endangered or missing children. That’s primarily what most of these cases are. Children with special needs may wander off and that’s a lot of where our search and rescue comes into play and that’s what the majority of our cases were last year.”
With all the assets at their disposal, the CARE Team hopes they have all of their bases covered when they are looking for an abducted or missing child. Kahley said having those resources available at a moment’s notice saves time and ultimately could save lives.
“Time is valuable with these types of incidents,” he said. “There’s a certain percentage in abductions. How many die within an hour? It’s a 44 percent that would be killed within the first hour; 74 percent in the first three hours; and 91 percent within 24 hours. So, with an abduction, time is valuable.”
The team has a number of dogs at their disposal when a child comes up missing. There are five Bloodhounds and two German Shepherds that are assigned to the CARE Team as well as others handled by other agencies.
Sgt. Prince is the lead canine when it comes to finding someone. Prince was donated to the group back in 2017 by the Jimmy Ryce Foundation and the Prince Athletic Club.
“We do have other dogs on the team, but he’s our primary resource for when it comes to man tracking,” Kahley said.
James said Prince is an outstanding resource for the CARE Team, but when you take him to any public events, people just love and bond with him.
Sgt. Prince has worked with Kauffman for 2½ years now.
“They have really bonded well together,” James said. “They train all the time. It’s amazing what the sheriff’s department does with their K9 unit. They train on a regular basis. They are always doing something and that’s good for the handlers and the K9s just for a bonding process.”
Lt. David Godfrey, who leads the York County Sheriff’s K9 Unit, put his dogs through some training along with Prince at Revolution Stadium. Godfrey became a part of the CAR.E. Team nine years ago when K9 Dargo, a German Shepherd, became a part of it.
“Bringing people home safe is our No. 1 objective,” Godfrey said. “I had a vital tool, a K9, that could assist with that. It just made sense why would you not be a part of the team.”
Kurtis Timmer, with South Central PA Search and Rescue, also had his dogs out training with Prince and the others. Timmer’s group, also part of the C.A.R.E. Team, started training with sheriff’s department dogs two years ago. They do so once a month to keep them ready.
“The training consists of a lot of team building with not only the K9 handlers from the sheriff’s department and our team, but our dogs are also being trained in the same setting and it challenges them,” Timmer said.
Most of the areas Timmer’s group works are outdoors, so getting to train in an indoor venue is valuable and gives the handlers the opportunity to see what the capabilities of the dogs are.
Timmer said being a part of the CARE team to help find missing or abducted children means a lot to him.
“The partnership that we’ve developed with them has just been outstanding,” he said.
That’s how many feel about being a part of the team.
Kahley has been with the team for 13 years while James has been associated with it for two years. Kahley coordinates team members and training for the group while James coordinates fundraising for the non-profit group.
James, who is the chief county detective for the York County District Attorney’s Office, never thought he would be involved with a group like this. After 17 years with the county forensic team and missing so much family time during that period, James wasn’t sure he wanted to be a part of another group that could be called out at any time of day. After becoming involved, he changed his mind.
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“It’s the people that make the team and make it special,” James said. “Just their willingness to get out there and help is so amazing to me. Those people are so passionate about doing something like this it doesn’t matter if it’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon or 2 o’clock in the morning, they’re are ready to go.”
Kahley, who is a lieutenant with the West York Borough Police, was originally drafted to be a part of the group by his chief at the time.
“Being an investigator, he thought I would be a good resource for the team,” he said. “I think it’s a tremendous team to be involved with. The way I always look at it if something happens to my kids, these are the people I want responding.”
— Reach Anthony Maenza at amaenza@yorkdispatch.com or @atmaenza on Twitter.