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29 March 2024

Dubai Police Dog Squad: Scent of a crime more than enough

Published
By Mohammed El Sadafy

Sniffer dogs at Dubai Police carried out 3,794 inspection mission security in the past 12 months, of which 1,699 checks were in the first half of this year.

These included checks for drugs and explosives, besides checks at crime scenes, searches for bodies and missing people, and detection of the causes of fires.

Abdul Salam Al Shamsi, Director of Training of Dogs at Dubai Police said that the department plays an important role in providing security and safety of the community of Dubai The dog squad was founded in 1976 and began with 6 trained dogs. Today the number of dogs is 66.

Among the more prominent achievements of the squad in the past 12 months  are a case where a knife used in a crime was found by the digs in the Rashidiya area and the dogs tracing an assailant in the Al Barsha area, picking up the scent from the victim’s body at a construction site.

In this case the dog tracked the scent for more than half a mile and stopped at a set of bags. In it were slippers and blood-stained clothes of the killer.

The dogs come from specialised farms in Europe, and the most prominent breeds are  German Shepherds, Dutch Shepherds, Labradors and Cocker Spaniels.

According to Al Shamsi, the dogs are especially useful in searches covering large areas, like farms and in the desert.

Al Shamsi added that dogs have been a big part of the detection of drugs and have been responsible for many busts.