Man's Best Friend Helping Keep Pepsi Center Safe
DENVER -- The Pepsi Center is stepping up security and they're using man's best friend to help.
Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) announced an agreement with Phantom K9 to help ensure a safe environment for fans, staff, athletes and performers.
Phantom K9 - an elite event canine security service company - will provide terrorism prevention and bomb detection services at public events, including sporting events, concerts and family shows held at Pepsi Center.
"They look for any evidence of any of those odors and if they're present they'll alert to those odors and then we'll have a bomb tech come in and do a secondary clearance to make sure everything's safe," dog handler Brent Kieffer told CBS4's Dominic Garcia.
Kieffer and his dog Nakita we're at Friday night's Avalanche game. They started their patrol before fans arrived and scoured the inside and outside of the property. He says a dogs sense of smell can be hundreds of times stronger that the human nose.
"When we walk into a room and smell beef stew, we simply walk in the room and say oh it's beef stew. But when the dogs walk in the room they can break down each ingredient," said Kieffer.
He adds that their teams also act as a deterrent to anyone that might try something.
"It gives those fans an extra sense of security. They feel safe, they come into these events for sheer entertainment and the last thing they want to do is worry about their safety."
Dominic Garcia anchors CBS4 News at 5 p.m. and reports for CBS4 News at 10 p.m. Connect with the Denver native on Twitter @cbs4dom & on Facebook.
