Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 05, 2015 News
By Romila Boodram
With literally a nose for crime, man’s best friend is helping the Guyana Police Force to put the bad guys away.
The mostly unsung heroes are the four-legged staffers from the Force’s Canine Division.
Though not publicized, for the year there are at least four cases before the court, successfully solved with help from the force’s ballistic and narcotic dogs.
While Crime Chief, Wendell Blanhum could not reveal much information about the cases before the court, a very reliable source provided some details.
The source explained that on one occasion, traffic ranks intercepted a car with a group of persons.
The occupants appeared to be nervous, and the ranks took them and the vehicle to a police station.
The cops searched the vehicle and the car appeared to be ‘clean.’
That was until one of the Force’s highly trained ballistic dogs came near the car and, by its behavior, signaled to its owner that something was amiss about one of the doors of the car.
Upon further examination, it was discovered that a weapon was hidden inside the door.
The occupants of that car were charged.
“We had to rip open that door and that’s when we found a weapon. Ranks do not normally search there,” the source stated.
On another occasion, a gun was hidden in some bushes on a farm on the Linden/Soesdyke Highway and police ranks took a ballistic dog to the scene. Within a short time, that weapon was located and the individual who allegedly concealed it is also before the court.
Thanks to the narcotic dogs, a number of cases have also been solved, Crime Chief Blanhumn said.
He said that the Force has two ballistic dogs. One was trained to find explosives while the other animal can find explosive devices, guns and ammunition.
The Force’s crime solving capabilities are also boosted by six narcotic dogs. Three are stationed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, one is stationed at the Ogle Airport and two are at Police Headquarters, Eve Leary.
All the dogs are imported from Texas and there is a handler assigned to each one.
The Force also has tracker dogs, which are used in crime scenes to locate bodies and possible suspects.
With regards to the breeds of the dogs, there is one German Shepherd and one Labrador retriever used for ballistics purposes while the narcotic dogs are Springer spaniels.
The Labrador is one of several kinds of retriever, while German Shepherds are used to assist police in searching for crime scene evidence.
The Springer spaniels are commonly used as sniffer dogs.
Blanhumn explained that some ranks from the Canine Section were sent to Texas, USA for a one-month training stint at Global Training Academy.
“The training is essential, because it’s not everyone can command a dog to execute those special duties,” Blanhum said.
Once the dogs arrive here, the Crime Chief said they are often taken through their paces so as to remain alert.
“We would hide explosives and send the dogs to find them. Sometimes we would use vehicles and sometimes we would hide items in buildings.”
“First when they pick up the scent, they would move from one side to another and then they would sit alongside, jump around or wiggle their tails to indicate that they have found something illegal but they do not attempt to retrieve any explosive item as that could be dangerous,” Blanhum explained.
Kaieteur News was told that when there are any major events, police would usually take the dogs to the location before to ensure that there is no illegal object there.
In June 1960, in an attempt to control what was then considered ‘the growing crime rate’, the Guyana Police Force enlisted its first police dog ‘RiO’ an Alsatian (German Shepherd) of local ancestry which was bought from a Georgetown based family, then domiciled at Bent Street.
The Force’s attempt to secure training for an officer in the United Kingdom was unsuccessful, and alternate training was obtained through the Trinidad Police Force, for the first trained dog handler, in the person of Corporal 5083 Williams, who upon his return, assisted to set the technical substratum for the deployment of police dogs in Guyana.
On June 18, 1964, a British dog trainer Sgt. Robert Bob Ling arrived from the United Kingdom to spend one year in Guyana, training policemen as dog handlers.
From all reports, he conducted an extensive training programme of an exceedingly high caliber, though four of the dogs which he had arrived with, died shortly thereafter, from the intense heat which prevailed at the time.
During the next few years, a second gift of dogs was received from the United States of America, and local breeding was made possible.
Regrettably, Police Dog Rio’s brief career came to a tragic end on 13th September 1965.
There are ten main causes of police dog deaths in Guyana; namely traffic accidents, inflicted trauma, friendly and hostile gun fire, falls, and drowning but these have to do directly with the hazards of the job.
The dogs’ abilities are often part of the Police Gymkhana event to showcase their skills at scent work and agility.
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