Police dogs to 'think and act' during crisis

They have been trained to sniff out danger and now dogs with Kolkata Police will be taught to react quickly in a crisis situation - independent of their handlers.

"We will train the dogs so that they can function like trained human security personnel in real life situations. The grooming will be the same as the training programmes for canines in the elite National Security Guard (NSG) and the Border Security Force (BSF)," Kolkata Police Detective Department (DD) dog squad officer-in-charge Pradip Panda told IANS.

Founded in 1971, Kolkata Police's dog squad is an important arm in detecting security threats and rounding up offenders. The strength of this squad is at present 23.

"We're now introducing several advanced equipment at the training ground inside the premises of the Kolkata Police Training School," Panda said.

According to officials, the project will cost Rs.76 lakh (Rs. 7.6 million) for a two-storeyed kennel to house the dogs.

"We've already submitted a proposal to upgrade the entire dog training complex and now it's awaiting sanction of the state government. If everything goes well, the work will probably start by next month," Panda said.

"The ground will be completely restructured. We will put up different types of hurdles where these dogs will have to apply their brains while undergoing training programmes. It will help in increasing their intelligence," said Panda, an ardent dog lover.

According to him, there will also be several climbing bridges, high jump pits, dark tunnels, zigzag, crawl-out obstacles and many others.

"We'll also provide weight training to these Kolkata Police dogs," he said, pointing out that currently the city police have four breeds of dogs - Doberman, Golden Retriever, German Shepherd and Rottweiler.

"We're also trying to bring two Cocker Spaniels into our squad. This breed is extremely intelligent and helpful to search out anything in a very narrow space. The size of this dog is very small and they can sniff out something very quickly in a small area," he said.

Of the 23 dogs with the Kolkata Police squad, three adult dogs are working as crime trackers, two as narcotic detectors, two as guard dogs and one as a rescue dog.

(Soudhriti Bhabani can be contacted at soudhriti.b@ians.in)

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( 383 Words)

2009-11-01-11:02:28 (IANS)

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