Through a partnership with the federal government’s bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the ASU Police department will get its first bomb-sniffing dog in July.

The dog will be the department’s first K-9 member — and its only for awhile.

“We’re finally getting started with K-9 units at ASU PD, but we only have plans for one dog,” ASU Police Cmdr. Jim Hardina said. “They provide the dog, and we send our officer out to Virginia to go through bomb-dog training.”

Detective Parker Dunwoody, a six-year veteran with ASU Police, will spend more than eight weeks in Front Royal, Va., training with his Labrador retriever starting May 18.

After he graduates on July 24, he will return to Tempe with his new partner, who will start working immediately.

Dunwoody was chosen during a selection process after he indicated interest in working with a four-legged colleague.

Though he is employed by ASU, Dunwoody is currently on loan with the Tempe Police Department’s narcotics division.

Assistant Police Chief Jay Spradling said the new dog will give ASU a chance to pay back other Valley units that have loaned ASU dogs.

“For football games, we’ve used Tempe dogs, Phoenix dogs and [Department of Public Safety] units,” Spradling said.

The dog, owned by the government, will have a home at the ASU Police department.

The station opted for a bomb dog instead of a drug dog because it will be more useful on campus, Hardina said.

“Our greatest need is a dog that can help us sweep venues because ASU has so many events,” Spradling said.

Though instances aren’t common, ASU occasionally experiences incidents like bomb threats for which a bomb dog could be useful. More likely use of the dog willoccur at routine events, like in February 2008, when Arizona hosted the Super Bowl or President Barack Obama’s May 13 commencement address.

“The dog won’t be on patrol, he’ll mostly be here at the police station,” Hardina said. “[The dog] will go out on special cases.”

The Labrador will also be on loan to other agencies and departments in the Valley.

“Most of the time you need more than one [dog] anyway,” Hardina said. “If you were going to sweep Sun Devil Stadium, for example, you would need several dogs.”

Because the dogs can only work a limited number of hours, ASU’s K-9 may partner with some of Tempe’s K-9 unit or be sent to other places in the Valley if an incident occurs.

“Currently, we rely on the resources of a lot of the other Valley units, but we won’t have to as much after July,” Spradling said.

The dog, which Dunwoody and the rest of the station have yet to meet, is already going through some preliminary training in Virginia.

Reach the reporter at tessa.muggeridge@asu.edu.