Cheshire Constabulary’s dog section was created in the 1950s. In
1951, Chief Constable GH Durnell was allocated £380 to spend over
two years on the acquisition of police dogs and the training of
handlers. Once a number of dogs had been bought, five officers -
led by Sgt Len Wadcock - visited Surrey Police to be trained as dog
handlers.
The dog section’s first home was at Dodleston, before moving to
a new site in Reaseheath. The section is now based at purpose-built
kennels at Cheshire Police headquarters, although all dogs live at
home with their handlers.
PC Keith Evans has worked as a dog handler since 1992, having
joined the force in 1979.
He said: “The dog section has adapted over the years, and there
is a very clear correlation between how police dogs were being
trained and used, and what was happening in society at the
time.
“Traditionally, all police dogs were general purpose dogs – used
mainly for public order and crowd control. In the 1960s, when drugs
started to become an issue, specialist drugs detection dogs became
more common.
“Then in the 1970s, the IRA were at their most active and police
forces moved towards explosives detection dogs.
“Dogs used to be the force’s only less than lethal option in a
siege situation, for example. Since officers have had CS gas, Taser
and other options available, dogs have been used less in this
capacity.
“The one constant has been the use of the German Shepherd. There
are other dogs used as general purpose dogs, but the German
Shepherd has been a mainstay and I don’t think anyone has found a
breed that does the job better.”
Experiments to find suitable alternatives have not always been
successful. In the 1980s, an Anatolian Karabash – a breed of
Turkish shepherd dog – was donated to the force by a breeder.
Nobody was quite sure what to expect from Mikah since he was the
only dog of his type in the British police at the time.
“I have never seen anything like it. It grew and grew and grew,”
said Keith. “In the end it was bigger than a Great Dane and was too
big to fit into a police van.
“Sergeant Ray Graham, who was the dog’s handler, took him home
to keep as a pet.”
Over the years, the section has also cutback some of its
extracurricular activities, which means very competitive contests
between dog handlers have long since been confined to the past.
Keith said: “We used to do in-house dog trials involving all of
the handlers and their dogs. The top two would go on to a regional
competition and if you did well at that you went onto the national
finals.
“We also used to do big displays where we would take
ten dogs to do a show. We sometimes even had celebrity guests
attending, such as Bob Carolgees.”
Cheshire Constabulary dogs even found their way into the
Guinness Book of Records. Sultan, whose handler was PC John Evans,
set a record for jumping 10ft 6in over a scale in 1974. The record
stood until 1980.