The Albuquerque Police Department (New Mexico) surveyed police departments in the 100 largest U.S. cities to determine if they used narcotics detection dogs. Seventy-eight percent of the departments responded. Of those, 75 percent reported using at least one narcotics detection dog. The training times reported varied, but the average training time was 14 weeks for patrol duty and 11 weeks for narcotics detection. Thorough training of a dog to detect narcotics should be carried out on a regular and frequent basis. Frequent tests of the dog's and the handler's capacities should be carried out. Whenever possible, actual drug samples as well as synthetic substances should be used in the training process. To establish the dog's reliability and competence when presenting evidence of canine drug detection in court, careful records of the dog's detection of real and synthetic drugs in actual crime work and in training must be maintained. Care should be taken to prevent the dogs from ingesting actual drug substances because they could cause illness or death.