K-9 Unit gets new four-legged recruit
Athena and PC Laura Hicks
(CNS): A two-year-old Dutch herder (or shepherd) called Athena has joined the RCIPS K-9 Unit. The specialist four-legged new recruit is trained to pursue, track and apprehend suspects, and to locate property that criminals may drop or try to dispose of when the dog is in hot pursuit. The police said she is also being trained to find drugs, firearms and cash in buildings and vehicles. Athena will be out on duty within the next two to three weeks, police said, once she and her handler, PC Laura Hicks, have completed their familiarisation and training.
Athena is one of three new dogs that will be joining the K-9 Unit over the next few weeks, with the other two dogs expected to arrive by early June.
Acting Superintendent Brad Ebanks, who heads up the RCIPS specialist units, explained how important trained dogs are in the local crime fight.
“We are very excited about this new addition,” he said. “The K-9 Unit has proven to be a valuable resource for the RCIPS, and increasing the size of the unit means that we can conduct more proactive patrols and participate more readily in operations where K-9 assistance may be needed.”
Dog breed experts say that Dutch herders are intelligent and highly trainable, and are used as police dogs, search and rescue and general service animals in many jurisdictions. The dogs are closely related to German and Belgian shepherds but are known to be some of the healthiest and easiest to train.
Category: Crime, Crime Prevention
Well whoop dee do!
Police K9 unit is a waste of time, anyone who has been here long enough knows this by now, but the police continue to spent loads of public money on them. The Customs Dept have better trained dogs and handlers, surely there could be an inter agency department.
Lets first get the breed name correct its a Dutch Shepherd or Hollandse Herder, not a Dutch Herder. It is a herding dog. The chance of one dog to learn all of the above in the correct manner is almost impossible. So just like all of the other K9 Units this one will go to s..t to. The Police have had what two K9 Units in the past, each consisting with at least 4-6 dogs, and they couldn’t do the job. One was killed because it wasn’t locked up properly, one was put to sleep because it was a little aggressive and no one knew how to train properly, I doubt anything will change, especially when some ignorant person thinks they can train one dog to do all that……..
I am just glad it is a female officer handling this canine officer this time around remembering what happened to one of the Belgian Malanois after they just arrived. 🙂
These types of dogs own you!!
So, is anyone going to ask the question as to what happened to the six dogs imported in 2011.
Dogs get retired from service after a few years.
Those dogs are probably 85 years old in human years. Give them a break!
Is it a tool in catching criminals or a hobby? Fleeting criminals always escape despite dogs being involved. Why?
Do you know what the word ‘fleeting’ means? It’s not the same as fleeing. Doh
Well, autocorrect doesn’t care, it forces its own version. D’oh
And you should check it and change it before you post it. Don’t let a computer force you to post something that you don’t want to say!
Or we could just ignore the obvious spellcheck errors and move on.
Waste of time getting a dog to sniff out cannabis ( a substance that should be well on the way to legalization but as usual Cayman is 10 steps behind unless it has to do with financial services)
Is cannabis the only drug there is?
Use more brain cells please!
Yet it is still the vast majority of the usage of these dogs and the most common illicit substance on the island