Police lead on finding new recruits

Humberside Police has launched a recruitment drive for five youthful canine members of their drug and cash detection team.

The breeds they are looking for are Labrador, Springer or Cocker Spaniels and they need to be keen to play ball.

Hounds of the right age and temperament – 12 to 24 months - are in short supply because of the London Olympic Games.

PC Paul Harrison, who has been a dog handler for 16 years, said: “We need working dogs who are pro-active. What we normally do is contact the breeders who we normally use, but unfortunately they have nothing in.

“We think the problem is the Olympics because there’s that many dogs which will be required for searching and over the last few months they have been bought up and trained up and are ready to go. All the forces have a commitment to send search dogs.

“What we want is a very dog, that is keen for a toy or a ball and is keen to search.

“Some dogs will stroll around a field having a sniff, we want the dogs who go in search of things.”

Humberside Police has 30 dogs in its dog section – 20 general-purpose German Shepherds, four explosive search dogs and six drug and cash dogs, either Springers, Labradors or Cocker Spaniels.

Pc Harrison said: “The reality is if you get the right dog, breed is unimportant. However we have found over the years, Springers, Cocker Spaniels and Labradors have the right sort of temperament and attitude. People will buy them because they are cute but don’t realise what they are buying.”

The new recruits will be allocated to a dog handler and become part of a team with the handler and live at home with them.

The training takes just five weeks and the dogs will then be allocated to jobs across the force area, including searching vehicles used in crimes and taking part in raids.

The dogs are trained to sniff out nine types of drugs - and two types of notes, Euros and sterling.

Policing with dogs is thought to date back to the 12th century when parish constables used bloodhounds - but apparently they were “unreliable, bad-tempered and savage “ and used more often to protect their masters than catch villains.

When the police tried to use bloodhounds to track down Jack the Ripper in 1888, one of the dogs bit the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and both dogs ran off - leading to a police search.

History records that in 1908 the North Eastern Railway police who used Airedales to put a stop to theft from the docks in Hull formed the first recognised UK Police Dog Section.

Anyone with a dog which may be suitable should contact handlers Jon Fenton on 07917 174632 or Paul Harrison 07976 618646.