Spotlight: Dogs with jobs

Police dogs have been on the frontline since 1908 in the UK and form an integral part of our policing family, playing a vital role in helping us serve our community. They help to catch criminals, locate missing people, and can sniff out drugs, cash and firearms including digital equipment Humberside Police love to find out what our Dog Section have been up to and to share with you some of the great work they are doing across our force.

They.ve spoken to PC Laura Delaney, to find out more about what a ‘general purpose’ police dog gets involved in. Laura is one of their dog handlers, a job she has wanted to do since she was a child, and her clever canine is PD Gas. 

Can you share more about ‘Gas’ and what we mean when we speak about a dog being ‘general purpose?

Sure, Gas is my two-year old Czech Shepherd police dog, and he has a broad range of skills. So, for example he can respond to calls for assistance ranging from the recovery of stolen property, burglaries, tracking offenders and the containment of serious crime scenes.

He can also help with missing people, crowd control and arrest attempts or violent incidents.

Whilst he’s one of our bigger police dogs, he’s still amazingly agile and can move super-fast to detain suspects. He can definitely run quicker than me.

He’s a great asset, and we are more than happy to help our units. Officers must lockdown the scenes, put on surrounds and stay out of the area before we get there to give the police dogs a sterile area to work in. This reduces the scents and makes it easier for them to focus.

Have you both been in dangerous or tricky situations?

Yes. Gas found burglars hidden in undergrowth and when challenged they tried to make a run for it, but he detained them. One of the suspects managed to drag him into water waist deep, but Gas didn’t let go, even in the water, until we could reach him and arrest him.

Another incident which springs to mind is when officers had been carrying out speed detection on the A15. A vehicle was captured driving 92mph and was requested to stop within a layby.

The officer suspected the driver to be under the influence and so he was walked to the police car where he resisted arrest, attempted to hit an officer, snatching his car keys, and then running back to his car to flee.

The officer attempted to detain the man, including being tasered twice, but the suspect ran into a field waist high with crops. PD Gas tracked him in the field, through tricky conditions then detained him (through biting and holding) so we could arrest him.

How does PD Gas relax off shift?

Gas lives at home with me, and my other four dogs who he loves. We go for long walks and play together in the garden. If we are doing training, we make it fun for him. He’s always full of beans and has bags of energy and wants to please. I love him to bits. We’ve been working together for a year but we’ve such a strong bond – which we need when we go as back up in dangerous situations.