Originally written by PC Kevin Gordon
Background
Police being accompanied by dogs goes back
to the 15th century when parish constables took dogs with them on
night patrols. It’s more likely, however, they were pets rather
than being used in the capacity they are today.
.jpg "Southampton Dogs 1964")
The first experiment with ‘official’ police dogs was
in 1888 when Charles Warren, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police tested the effectiveness of two bloodhounds with a view to
using them in the search for the infamous Victorian murderer, Jack
the Ripper. The experiment was an embarrassing failure; one of the
dogs bit the Commissioner and both dogs ran off, requiring a police
search to find them again.
While police forces on the continent were
experimenting with police dogs, it wasn’t until 1906 that Britain
began to get serious about using dogs. Colonel Richardson, an
ardent dog trainer, tried to get the police interested in the work
being done by police forces abroad. He tried to persuade the
Metropolitan Police to start a dog section and representatives of
the Force went to France in 1906 to see some dogs in action.
They returned unimpressed; a report to the
commissioner said: “The dogs are useful but their expertise has
been exaggerated. We feel that London is no place for police
dogs.”
The same year Mr Geedes, Chief Goods Manager
for Hull Docks, Yorkshire, visited Ghent in Belgium and happened to
see the work of the police dogs and was very impressed. When he
returned he arranged a meeting with Superintendent J Dobie of the
North Eastern Railway Police who was responsible for policing the
docks at Hull.
Mr Geedes was able to convince the police
superintendent that dogs may assist his officers in the security at
the docks and on 26 November 1907, the two men and some other
officers went to Ghent on a fact finding mission. Superintendent
Dobie was suitably impressed and instructed an Inspector Dobson to
set up a similar scheme. Inspector Dobson decided to use Airedale
Terriers as he considered them to be stronger, hardier and have a
keener sense of smell. Another consideration was that their wiry
coat was less likely to pick up mud from the docks and therefore
they would need less grooming.
The first British police dog section
The first police dogs went on patrol at Hull
Docks in 1908. Initially there were four dogs called Jim,
Vic, Mick and Ben. Jim’s handler was Sergeant Allinson who was
pictured in the local press and the nationally circulated Pall-Mall
and Penny Pictorial magazines. The latter reported: “In a novel
experiment by the North Eastern Railway Police, dogs are used as
detectives on the docks at Hull. They consist of a number of
trained Airedale Terriers which, in company with the railway
police, patrol throughout the night and capture thieves, tramps and
other persons who may be sleeping out. The dogs are trained to obey
a police whistle and to chase and stop a man who is running
away.”
On 26 November 1908 the scheme extended to
Hartlepool Docks and shortly afterwards to the Tyne Dock and
Middlesbrough Docks, all policed by the NER Police. The dogs were
all trained at Hull where kennels had been erected and were issued
with a coat to wear during bad weather.
These dogs were only used at night and were
probably not specific to an individual handler. They were trained
by use of treats to protect the police uniform, indeed to attack
anyone who was not wearing a uniform as anyone not in uniform in
the docks at night could be considered a suspect. The dogs would
even growl at their own handlers when they were not in uniform.
In 1910 the North
Eastern Railway Magazine gave an account of an early arrest by
these dogs: “Early one morning a policeman accompanied by a dog was
patrolling St Andrews Dock in Hull and, seeing a man loitering in a
suspicious manner called upon him to stop. The man took no notice
so the officer slipped his dog – one of the best. It soon had the
man down and begging for mercy. Having secured this man the officer
made a search and found the window of a refreshment room broken. He
entered and called upon those inside to surrender. Receiving no
response he called out that he had taken his dog’s muzzle off when
immediately came the reply: ‘put his muzzle back on sir and we will
come out,’ and two burly fellows came from behind the counter.
They, along with their companion were marched by the officer and
his dog to the police station, a distance of about half a mile
without the slightest resistance. They turned out to be notorious
burglars and received their just desserts.”
After the Great War the dog section was
subject to a review and in 1923 the Hull trainers decided to use
the Alsatians, the favoured dog of the German Army during the
conflict. It took until the late 1920s for other ‘non-railway’
police forces to become interested in the use of police dogs and it
was in 1934 that the Home Office set up a committee to evaluate
their use. It was initially felt that dogs on the streets would
harm the police’s relationship with the public but eventually the
go ahead was given in 1938.
Hedon Hall
After the war many different railway and
dock police forces amalgamated to become the British Transport
Commission Police. This new force, the second largest in the
country, had a police dog strength of 24. A new police dog training
centre was established at Inmans Farm, Hedon Hall near Hull, the
kennels being located in converted stables. The Officer in Charge
of this new school was Inspector John Morrell who not only obtained
gift dogs but begun to breed pedigree dogs for use by the Force. It
was under his stewardship, and with the support of Chief Constable
Arthur West that the strength of the dog section was increased to
75.
In 1960 Inspector Morrell died at the age of
46 and his role was taken on by Inspector Herbert Shelton who was
recruited from another force for the task.
The 1960s and 1970s
Inspector Shelton was responsible for the
construction of a new police dog training centre at Elstree in
Hertfordshire. This new facility allowed more dogs to be trained
and dog handler posts were established at many stations and docks
throughout the country including Southampton Docks which formed its
dog section in 1962.
It was at Southampton in 1973 where PC
‘Spud’ Murphy trained his general purpose dog to detect cannabis
that was being imported into the country, often amongst goods and
freight. The superintendent was so impressed he obtained a dog
specifically for this purpose. Cap, named after a ships captain who
donated him was multi-handled by four officers.
Between 1973 and 1974 arrests by dog
handlers rose from 738 to 908 but this did not impress the new
Chief Constable Eric Haslam who had joined the Force from the Kent
County Constabulary. He reduced the dog section to 22 officers.
On 4 July 1974 PC Don Gordon and his police
dog, Jim, caught a man stealing cable at Grand Terminus Junction,
Glasgow. The man slashed the officer around the face and stabbed
Jim before escaping. Despite their injuries the team chases and
again tackles the man but receive further injuries. The officer
requires 38 stitches but the man is caught and officer and dog
receive the Whitbread Shield for their brave conduct. The first and
only time a dog handler has won this award.
The 1980s
PC Parkinson in Manchester became the first
BTP officer to undergo training for detecting explosives when in
1980 he and his dog attended a course with the Cheshire Police.
In 1982 PC Margaret Lyall, stationed at
Glasgow, became the first female dog handler in the force.
In 1984 a new dog training school was opened
on a site adjacent to the Force Training Centre at Tadworth,
Surrey.
In 1988 Sgt Ablard was awarded the BEM in
the Queen’s New Years Honours list for his services to dog handling
within British Transport Police.
Terrorism and drugs
On 21 December 1989 a terrorist bomb exploded on Pan-Am 747
plane which crashed near the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Two dog
handlers from the BTP in Scotland, Davy Connell and Alistair
Campbell, arrived on scene within an hour and commenced a tour of
duty that lasted 33 hours. The officers and dogs discovered 23
bodies. They were later joined by dog handlers PCs Callum Weir and
Neil Russell who remained on site until the end of the searches
four weeks later. The involvement of these four officers was such
that they were called to attend court in Holland 11 years later to
give evidence relating to the incident.
Passive Alert Detection (PAD) dogs were
first used by Customs and Excise and the Prison Service, and in
1998 the use of such dogs was brought to the attention of Detective
Chief Superintendent Peter Whent. As a result PC Judy Bailey
attended a Home Office training school with her dog Benji. BTP were
used as a pilot force for this aspect of policing with dogs and the
experiment was highly successful. In their first two years
together, Judy and Benji made more than 4,000 searches which
resulted in 1,546 arrests. Other forces have now followed the lead
of the BTP in training and using PAD dogs.
Sources
PC Mo Standford, British Transport Police Dog
Section
BTP Archives
The British Transport Police Journal
North Eastern Railway Magazine
The London and North Eastern Railway
Magazine
Pall-Mall Magazine
The Penny Pictorial
The Metropolitan Police Dog Training School
Animals in War by Gilly Cooper