Greater Manchester Police reviews police dog deployment

Date published: 20/03/2006

Greater  Manchester  Police  is changing the way it uses its police dogs to ensure  it  meets  the  demands of modern policing and to help the force to continue   to  provide  an  efficient  and  effective  service  to  Greater Manchester's communities.

Like  many  other specialist police units, the dog unit will now be managed centrally  by  an  inspector and ten dedicated sergeants.  The handlers and their  dogs will deploy from five police stations across Greater Manchester and  the  sergeants  will  manage  their deployment.  This will replace the current  system,  where  dog  handlers  are supervised by divisional patrol sergeants who also have responsibility for large teams of patrol constables and the serious incidents they deal with.

The  changes  have  been  made to ensure that GMP's dog handlers, including those  who  specialise  in  drugs,  explosives  and bodies, are more evenly spread  across  the  region  and  can easily be deployed to meet divisional demands  and  target  hotspot  areas.   The  changes  will also ensure that training is tailored to suit the individual needs of the officers and their dogs rather than the same training being given to all handlers.

In  2006/07,  GMP  will be around £14million short of the money it needs to balance  its  books.   The  Force is doing the best it can with the limited resources  and  every  effort has been made to protect front-line policing. Nevertheless,  there will be a reduction of 35 dogs and 26 officers, as GMP can  no  longer support the current level of dogs and the cost of training. These  recommendations were also part of a rigorous review of the dog unit, which  was  conducted  in  2004.  The  budget  shortfall  has  led  to  the recommendations now being prioritised.

Chief  Superintendent  Phil  Hollowood, Head of GMP's Specialist Operations Branch  said:   "The  reduction  in  dogs  and handlers will not affect the service  provided  to Greater Manchester.  Where a dog handler has not been selected  to continue on in the new unit, their dogs will go to good homes. They  will  firstly be offered to their handler as family pets.  But if the officers  can't  take them, the dogs will be offered to other police forces or  the  army.  The officers will be returned to general patrol duties with most of them based on the divisions where they were already working."