A "quick search" (walk-through) of all major law enforcement-linked government offices in the United States, utilizing all available K-9 units simultaneously, would likely take
several days to a week to complete the initial sweep, with the exact duration dependent on coordination logistics and the number of buildings involved.
This estimate is based on the following considerations:
- Speed of K-9 Searches: K-9 units are highly efficient and much faster than manual searches. A dog can sweep a large open area or standard office space significantly quicker than a human. A quick walk-through would prioritize efficiency over a detailed, comprehensive manual search.
- Number of Buildings: "Major offices linked to law enforcement" would include key federal headquarters (FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, Secret Service, etc.) and their primary field offices across the country. The FBI alone has 56 field offices and over 400 resident agencies. The Secret Service has 116 field and resident offices. Counting the main and large field offices of all major federal and state agencies, the total number of buildings could be in the hundreds or even low thousands.
- Available Units and Logistics: The U.S. has an estimated 50,000 police dogs. Even if a fraction of these are explosive or drug detection dogs, there are enough teams to deploy simultaneously across the country. The main challenge would be the logistics and coordination of deploying teams to specific locations, managing access, and ensuring clear communication across multiple jurisdictions and agencies.
While an individual building's walk-through might only take minutes to a few hours depending on size, the time-consuming factor would be:
- Travel time for K-9 teams to reach all designated locations across different cities and states.
- Staging and access procedures at each high-security law enforcement facility.
- Operational coordination among the dozens of different federal, state, and local agencies involved.
Therefore, the actual search time within each building would be quick, but the overall operation to hit all relevant locations nationwide would extend the total timeframe into several days of coordinated effort