The four-legged furry weapons fighting drug crime

FEATURE

Fortunately not many of us get to see police dogs in action but that doesn’t mean they’re not busy catching criminals. As well as uncovering drug stashes and firearms, the pooches even have time for a bit of Facebook networking. Reporter KEELEY KNOWLES went along to meet some of them.

It’s hard not to see some of the dog squad members as cute pets but they are trained to be completely concentrated on the job in hand and not to be distracted by any amount of fuss.

At seven years’ old Ted the Springer Spaniel has busted his fair share of drug dealers over the years but is now nearing retirement. He’s just had a knee operation which is unnoticeable as he sniffs out a batch of heroin and cannabis planted in the room and freezes as he is trained to do.

“We don’t want them to pick up the drugs as they could harm them so they just wait until the officer comes along to get the items,” said Steve Mann, the Inspector of the newly collaborated Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire dog unit.

“Ted’s been known to stay like that for around ten minutes before.”

The team of around 45 German Shepherds, Springer Spaniels, Retrievers and Labradors, have made nearly 500 arrests between them already this year and have been called out on thousands of jobs.

There are two types of police dogs; ‘general purpose’ – who help with all kinds of incidents and ‘the specialist dog’ – taught different skills including the detection of explosives, drugs, guns and large quantities of cash.

Among their finds are a stash of £50,000 and a hand gun sniffed out from a bag of dog food. They are not rewarded with juicy steaks or hours of petting but simply a pat on the back and a tennis ball for some of the Springer Spaniels.

Many of the dogs come from less fortunate backgrounds and have not been fed or looked after properly.

Some of them are donated by members of the public or by rescue homes that believe the pets are too intelligent and motivated to be kept adequately stimulated by ordinary families.

They don’t get an easy life with the police however and although they go home with their owners, they are not supposed to mix with children or other members of the family to keep them as disciplined as possible.

Many of the police owners decided to keep the dog as part of the family when the animal reaches the age when it cannot longer work any longer.

Insp Mann said: “They can then sit at home on the sofa with a blanket after a life of hard work.

“Some of them go to other families – one couple in Norfolk have got about seven ex-police dogs at the moment and they take them to the beach every day so they are well looked after.”

As well as the intense training that the dogs have to go through to ‘make the grade’ and become a working police dog, the handlers receive strict Home Office training and need to be qualified before they can go out with the animals.

It’s not hard to see the importance of this training when witnessing the dogs’ strength first-hand.

Storm, a two-year-old German Shepherd shows us how he stops an offender who has just fired a gun by holding on to his left arm with his teeth until told to let go by his officer.

Then he obediently goes and sits down next to him while the officer carries out the arrest.

Being staged, it goes smoothly but I don’t envy the offender who plays up while Storm is around.

The dogs do have a fun side though and to prove it, some of them, including Storm, are in their process of setting up their own Facebook profiles.

You’ll be able to track the progress of Phynn, the German Shepherd puppy, in the new year, to see if he makes it as a police dog.