Specialist dog units

Specialist dog units

What are they?

Dogs are trained by the police to perform tasks that the police officers don't have the ability to complete, These dogs are specially trained to use their nose to find and locate vital or important objects. These dogs are trained by handlers from a very early age so that the training is imprinted into the dogs mind, however particular dogs are chosen for particular tasks. German or Belgium Shepard's are used as general purpose which entitles them to preform multiple tasks such as the location of a concealed object at a crime scene or perhaps locating a missing person, by being introduced to someones scene the dogs can attempt to smell the area to see if they can pick up the missing persons scent. Other dogs such as Labradors or Spaniels are trained to pick up the scent of hidden items such as drugs or firearms.

Fire investigation:

In terms of a fire investigation the specialist dog unit can perform a couple of tasks to aid the police, The first task is that the specialist dogs can identify the seat of a fire which can dramatically speed up an investigation as the police no longer have to waste value time searching through the debris.(london-fire.gov.uk) These specialist dogs can help the speed of the investigation which helps the overall efficiency, one of the most important things as part of an investigation is obviously the evidence present at the scene of the crime. As I've previously stated speed is effect because the quicker that the evidence can be located the better the condition of the evidence, for example if it was biological evidence then the SOCO's would need to get to it as quick as possible before it begins to denature. Also if there is a threat of a bomb which could result in a lot of damage (and fires) it needs to be discovered pretty quickly. The police specially train the certain dogs to be able to detect explosives, this is very effective because it can help the bomb squad get to the bomb as quick as possible increasing their chances of success which help save multiple lives in the process. The involvement of specialist dog units in a fire investigation is very beneficial at the scene of the fire. The dogs can help find evidence very fast as their sense of smell is far greater than humans, this helps speed up the investigation dramatically as otherwise SOCO's would have to spend days rummaging through debris in order to find "most" of the evidence. The dogs are also very benefits in a bomb scene as they are able to quickly detect the presence of a bomb that the investigators cannot locate, this is very useful because if there is a bomb threat then the bomb squad needs to be allocated as much time as possible to defuse the bomb, the dogs can provide this.