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Handler – Officer Mitch Miller
Port St. Lucie police dog remembered
The first time Drago sniffed out a suspect, his two-legged partner was amazed. “I can’t believe this dog actually tracks like that,” Port St. Lucie Officer Mitch Miller said. “Puts his nose down and finds people.” Miller still was impressed eight years later when Drago caught someone for the last time. In between, Drago, a German shepherd from the Czech Republic, was deployed for police work about 2,000 times. The 10-year-old pooch died last week, a year after retiring from the job. Miller said the dog had a series of medical issues, and his heart just gave out. “He served the community and he loved doing it,” Miller said. “We’ve brought back kids that were missing (when) the parents were distraught and distressed.” Port St. Lucie police now have six dogs, four of which specialize in narcotics detection. One specializes in bomb detection and the sixth is a search bloodhound. Miller said he got selected in 2007 for the agency’s canine unit, and that Drago and two other dogs came from a vendor in Miami. Officer Mike Colton, who has been involved with law enforcement dogs for almost two decades, is the police canine unit’s head trainer. He looks for a match between handler and dog. “Mitch is no little fellow, and I know he wanted kind of a big dog,” Colton said. “Drago was a pretty good-sized dog even as a puppy and had all the attributes we were looking for.” Miller said Drago weighed slightly more than 100 pounds, and Colton said Drago was the largest at the department by 20 to 25 pounds. “Gentle giant when he needed to be, but a very formidable police service dog when he needed to be,” Colton said. Miller and Drago hit the streets of Port St. Lucie in mid 2007 after hundreds of hours of training in obedience, tracking, apprehension and narcotics.”Both of us were pretty raw. I had never handled a dog before,” Miller said. “We learned together.” Miller, who joined the Port St. Lucie police in 2006, spoke of the bond between handler and dog. “They’re alpha males, so the dog’s not just going to sit down and listen to anybody,” Miller said. “The dog wants to be in charge … that dog has to feel comfortable and confident that you as a handler are leading him.” He said Drago tracked people and caught them nearly 170 times, which Colton said was a high number for an area like Port St. Lucie. “Up to this point, and probably for some time to come, that’s going to be the benchmark for all of the teams to try to achieve,” Colton said. Miller recalled Drago’s role in helping with a January 2014 rape case that happened shortly after midnight at the Mariposa Elementary playground. Arrested in the incident was Jimmie Ernest Glover, 28, who was sentenced last week to 12 life terms in prison. “What Mitch and Drago had together was intuitive, that was something I can’t teach,” Colton said. “He and that dog were absolutely in tune with each other.” Miller said he spent 10 hours a day working with Drago, and when he was at home sleeping, Drago was near the bed. “We were buddies,” Miller said. As time went by, the years took a toll. “With a bigger dog, jumping in and out of the car, carrying that much weight … ,” Miller said. “They wear down sometimes quicker.” When Drago retired in early 2015, Miller left the canine unit and his four-legged partner took on the life of a house dog. “He wanted to go out and constantly play, throw the ball, hung out with our other shepherd (a male named Rocky),” Miller said. “He knew this was his pack, his house, his den and he just hung out here like a regular dog.” Drago’s death last week was tough for Miller’s three children. His daughter, Madison, he said, was about 5 when Drago came home, and she grew up with him. “He was the big protector,” Miller said. Miller misses the companionship. “He was one of the smartest dogs I’ve ever seen,” Miller said. “The bond we had was so strong that I could tell you what he was thinking.”
