How Man’s Best Friend Can Help Fight Crime

How man’s best friend can help fight crime

Dogs have been a part of police forces around the world since 1899 when a department in Belgium released its first organized police dog program. Dogs have a sense of smell that is 40 times greater than ours. They even have a unique organ called the ‘Jacobson’s organ’ that essentially provides them with the ability to taste a smell.

This means that they can find clues and evidence in a way that no human or technology has ever had the capability of doing.

The most common breeds that are trained to be police dogs are: Golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, German shepherds, Doberman Pinschers, Border collies and more 

Here are some specific jobs that the dogs can be trained for  

Cadaver dogs

-trained to find dead bodies

-some can detect earlier stages of decomposition while others can detect older remains

-they can detect on the surface, underground and underwater

Search and rescue dogs

-trained finding living people

-can hold the scent of a person

-objects belonging to the victim or objects that have been touched by the victim will be presented to the dog

Tracking dogs

-Basically the same as a rescue dog but they are looking for a fugitive or criminal

Drug searching dogs

-trained to smell different drugs including illegal narcotics

Arson dogs

-trained to detect chemical accelerants which are used to start a fire

-can find where there is the highest concentration of accelerant

Explosive detecting dogs

-trained to detect explosive materials like sulphur, nitroglycerin etc.

-recently have been used more because of the focus on terrorism

-have to be careful around the suspected bomb because some can go off when touched