Case Studies

Dogs on city centre patrol

by Mark Rowe

Two sniffer dogs were on patrol in Leicester city centre with police on Saturday night, June 25, in an effort to disrupt what the authorities term the well-documented connection between drug use and violence.

For the first time city police officers worked with two passive drugs dogs from the East Midlands Operational Support Service (EMOpSS) which provides regional specialist dog support to the counties of Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.

National research shows that violent crime peaks in city centres between 1am and 5am due to the effects of alcohol and drugs taken earlier. Leicestershire say that their local statistics reflect this, with a larger number of assaults reported to the police in Leicester between those hours than at any other time, particularly on a Friday and Saturday night.

Police dogs Leo and Ross were with their handlers, PC Tony Chambers from EMOpSS, and PC Nick Dachtler from Derbyshire Police. They patrolled Belvoir Street, Market Place, Market Street, High Street, Humberstone Gate, Granby Street, the Lanes, Hotel Street, Horsefair Street and Dolphin Square from 9pm with a team of 12 officers. Both are specialist dogs trained to smell both Class A and B drugs. The dogs will sit next to a person if they smell drugs indicating that they believe that person has taken drugs or is in possession of drugs. Officers will then speak to them and, if there are sufficient grounds, conduct a stop search.

Some 28 people were stopped and searched in total. Three men were arrested and three people were found in possession of a small quantity of class ‘C’ drugs and given words of advice; 18 people admitted having taken drugs earlier that evening. There were two assaults in the city centre on Saturday night but no one was arrested for being drunk and disorderly nor were there any arrests for public order offences.

Sergeant 4665 Liz Perry, from the City Centre Neighbourhood team, organised the operation. She said: “This Operation has been running successfully in Nottingham city centre for several years and over the last twelve months has reduced their night time economy violent offending by 23%.

“We are always keen to try new initiatives to keep our city safe at night so we decided to use the passive drugs dogs as well. Last night there were some occasions when people saw the dogs and ran off in the opposite direction, or crossed the road to avoid being sniffed at. One man crossed the road and tried to hide from officers. He was detained for the purpose of a search and found to be in possession of a lock-knife. Another man tried to avoid officers and was found in possession of several packets of the now illegal Mamba.

“If we can remove drug use from the city in the early evening it is proven to reduce offences later in the night. Out of 28 searches conducted last night, 18 people admitted having taken drugs or been around people using drugs. All of the searches were recorded using officer’s personal issue body worn video in line with current force policy.”

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