The first recorded instance of the use of dogs in police work was in St. Malo, France, in the early part of the 14th Century, to guard dock installations. This use of dogs continued until 1770 when it was abolished after a young naval officer was accidentally killed by one of the dogs. The next known police employment of dogs was in Paris in 1895 to combat street gangs that were causing a police problem. The success of these dogs in curbing these gangs led to their use in Germany in 1896. It was in Germany that the first scientific and planned development in this field took place with experiments in breeding, training and utilization.

Through their experiments with dogs in police work the Germans selected the German Shepherd, also known as the Alsatian, as the breed best suited for the assigned duties and the Doberman Pinscher as second choice. The Vancouver Police Department uses German Shepherds exclusively. One of the requirements for the presentation of Police Dog expert evidence in our courts is that the dog must be proven a German Shepherd dog. Once accepted, the dog handler may relate his opinion of what his police dog's actions mean.

In 1920, a school was established in Greenheide, Germany the first of its kind for the training of dogs for use in the field of law enforcement. Here the dogs were trained in basic obedience, tracking and searching. From this school came the plans and criteria for those to come, and much of the training system used in modern dog squad operations has been taken from Greenheide. As in all other fields of police work, a new approach was soon to be used in the use of dogs for this purpose. In the middle 1930's, London borrowed the techniques that were used at Greenheide and began training dogs for police work. The success of the London dogs in police work was influential in the establishment of our dog squad in 1957, the first municipal police department in Canada to do so.

Vancouver Police Dog Squad

What is the Police Dog Unit?

Dogs play a vital role in modern police work and are used by every force in the country. There are approximately 2,500 police dogs in England and Wales. Their naturally powerfully sense of smell and agility are used by the police for finding drugs, explosives and human remains. Police dogs are also trained to track and catch criminals, for crowd work, and in prisons.

The most popular breed for police work is the German Shepherd, chosen for its intelligence and highly developed senses, they also tend to be more instinctively suspicious of strangers than other breeds. Dogs need to have the right temperament to be suitable for police work – those who may make unsuitable pets, because they are too energetic and demanding, are often ideal.

How does it fight crime?

A police dog must have a close bond with their handler for them to work successfully together. To create this bond, the dogs are matched with their handlers while they are still puppies and go to live with them when they're around 12 weeks old. However, the dogs are very much working dogs, not family pets, so they live in kennels outside their handler's home. They begin their formal training together when the dogs are a year old.

Just as the dogs are carefully chosen, so are the police officers they will be working with. Officers who volunteer to become dog handlers must have already completed two years of street duty as a uniformed Police Constable. Once approved the prospective handler attends a two week suitability course. The police dog training course has been developed to prepare them for any situation they may face. The course builds on their instinctive behaviour to enable them to carry out tasks and obey the handler on command. A dog's natural instinct is to please their pack leader, and for a police dog this is their handler.

The course starts with basic obedience exercises. This is followed by tracking, where the dogs learn to follow a ground scent over different types of terrain and in varying conditions. They are taught how to bark continuously when they find what they are looking for. They also learn how to chase and attack, even when they are being threatened with weapons. Police dogs need to be aggressive, but never vicious and have to obey their handlers at all times. At the end of 14 weeks, the dogs should be ready to go out to work with their handler, with whom they will continue working until they are seven or eight years old.

Out on patrol, police dogs are used for searching and tracking situations. A police dog is able to search an area much more quickly than a lone officer, as well as being able to get into difficult places, such as dense undergrowth. The dog's ability to scent humans is also very useful in finding people who may be lost or hiding.

Dogs are also used in areas where there are large crowds, for example at football matches, or other places where there maybe incidents of anti-social behaviour. Specialist dogs are trained to search for drugs, explosives and fire-arms. For this work, Springer Spaniels and Labradors are often used because of the breeds natural tracking abilities. As the threat of terrorism has increased these specialist police dogs have become even more important to the police.

What's the history?

Dogs have worked alongside the police for many years. In fact, throughout the 19th century, British police officers often took their pet dogs out on patrol with them. And in the 1890s, Hyde Park police station had 'Topper' the fox terrier, who often joined the officers on their regular patrols.

However, other countries were much more advanced in using dogs for police work. The achievements of police dogs in Ghent, Belgium, spread to several continental countries, and by World War I, dogs were being trained to perform specific military duties, as messengers, guards and sentries. This prompted Britain to take an interest in using police dogs during the 1920s. And an experimental school was established to examine training and to see which breeds had the most aptitude for police work.

After World War II, more experiments were run, including a highly successful test in using dogs to accompany patrols in Hyde Park. On their very first night in the park one of the dogs foiled a purse snatching attempt, and the crime rate in the park plummeted. This success proved the value of the dog section and in 1953, a specialised training unit was set up.

Just as police work is making increasing use of new technology so is the training police dogs receive. Police dogs are now being trained to work with cameras attached to their heads, enabling them to enter dangerous places and send pictures back to officers.

以上信息引自http://www.bbc.co.uk/crime/fighters/policedogunit.shtml，http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/police/dogsquad/index.html，http://www.napwda.com/

 

I never dreamed it would be me

My name for all eternity

Recorded here at this hallowed place

Alas, my name, no more my face

"In the line of duty" I hear them say

My family now the price will pay

My folded flag stained with their tears

We only had those few short years

The badge no longer on my chest

I sleep now in eternal rest

My sword I pass to those behind

And pray they keep this thought in mind

I never dreamed it would be me

And with heavy heart and bended knee

I ask for all here from the past

Dear God, let my name be the last

Don’t grieve for me I served you well.

I loved you more than you could ever tell.

I am now an angel in blue.

I laid my life on the line for you.

I wore my badge with honor every day,

to keep citizens safe and out of harms way.

so when you see a badge worn with pride,

remember their comrades and friends that have died.

哇

San Francisco officer dies on canine training run

Copyright 2006 The Chronicle Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved Head of the unit was on a half-mile tracking exercise   By JAXON VAN DERBEKEN The San Francisco Chronicle See Officer Tsujimoto's Officer Down page SAN FRANCISCO — A 15-year San Francisco police veteran who headed the department's canine unit died, apparently of a heart attack, during a training exercise Monday night on Treasure Island, department officials said Tuesday. Darryl Tsujimoto, 41, of Alamo had just run a half a mile with a department dog, leading the exercise to track a suspect, when he collapsed at 9 p.m., said acting Capt. Dan McDonagh of the tactical unit. "Just at the same point the dog located the pretend bad guy, he went down," McDonagh said. "His fellow officers didn't know if this was part of the training. His partner thought he was just adding something to the scenario. She questioned him for a second, and he just wasn't responsive." Tsujimoto was taken to San Francisco General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. McDonagh said Tsujimoto was in good shape and often ran alongside the dogs he handled — Loki, a German shepherd, and Barak, a Belgian Malinois. Both were dogs he had owned, trained and donated to the department. "There was no indication at all that anything was going to happen," McDonagh said. "He was 41, a young man. It is devastating." Under Tsujimoto's leadership, the canine unit won gold medals in several national competitions. Tsujimoto had also served in the Mission, Taraval, Park and Tenderloin Task Force stations, and in the narcotics and vice units. "He was dedicated to dogs," McDonagh said. "He loved animals. It was his passion." Police Chief Heather Fong said Tsujimoto's efforts made the canine unit a "showpiece for the department." "His passing has immeasurably saddened all of us," she said. "He was a very talented officer, with a wealth of experience and knowledge," McDonagh said. "He would go out of his way to help train people." Davin Cole, a 13-year-veteran who is part of the canine unit, said Tsujimoto had died fulfilling his dream of working with dogs and supervising nine other officers in the canine unit. "He loved what he did. He wouldn't have it any other way," Cole said. Tsujimoto was engaged to be married, Cole said. He had no children.