Dubai Police’s canine unit: sniffing out the criminals
Meet the furry detectives who, with their handlers, are ensuring security across the emirate
Dogs who detect drugs will tear the item or the box that contains drugs, but dogs trained to detect explosive materials will sit down SGT SAEED AHMED ABDULLAH Training supervisor
From sniffing out explosives to searching for missing people, locating dead bodies and tracking suspects, Dubai’s canine police force have become a key part of fighting crime in the city.
The unit was established in March 1976 with six dogs and six trainers. Today, it has more than 58 dogs and 45 trainers and, during the first 11 months of this year, the canine officers took part in 4,800 operations.
Dubai Police is planning to expand its department of doggy detectives.
“Dubai police dogs play a significant role in providing and maintaining security across the emirate,” said Lt Col Abdel Salam Al Shamsi, the director of Dubai Police canine unit.
“The canine unit is trained in several specialities and dogs have been used in criminal investigations for centuries.”
German shepherd, Malinois, springer spaniels and Labrador retrievers are trained from about 12 to 18 months.
For the first two weeks, trainers play with the dogs and teach them to respond to basic commands. Then the instincts of the new dogs, known as “green dogs”, are evaluated and they are streamed, specialising in one area.
Sgt Saeed Ahmed Abdullah, one of the training supervisors, said the dogs receive daily drills aimed at helping them to differentiate between the substances they are required to track, according to their specialism.
“The dogs train from 8am until 10pm on a daily basis. Each dog is trained for a specific task, such as detecting drus or other contraband. Real drug substances are used during the training, including weed, opium and cocaine,” he said.
The police dogs are even able to smell fear and confusion among criminals. “A dog’s sense of smell is far more acute than that of humans … There is no doubt that police dogs help in detecting crimes within a very short period of time,” Col Al Shamsi said.
A few months ago, police officers solved a murder that was committed in the desert in Al Warsan thanks to their sharpnosed canine colleagues.
Within 10 minutes of arriving on the scene, the dogs had located the murder weapon and the killer’s mobile phone, which contained evidence – a photograph of the victim that had been taken minutes before the murder.
In another recent case, they found the body of an Emirati man buried in the desert in Ras Al Khaimah, where it had been for five days.
On Sunday, after the discovery of three bodies of men who had perished in a warehouse fire in Al Quoz, dogs were dispatched to ensure there were no undiscovered bodies and to help police find the cause of the fire.
They are able to do this sort of work because they have the ability to become specialists; dogs have recently begun training to detect explosive materials.
“Dogs detecting drugs and dogs detecting explosive materials are trained to behave differently,” Sgt Abdullah said.
“Dogs who detect drugs will tear the item or the box that contains the drugs, but dogs trained to detect explosives will sit down near to where they have found explosives.”
It may be a dog’s life, but it’s not all work.
“Police officers and trainers at the canine unit build relationships with the dogs, especially because that dog has been trained from an early age,” Sgt Abdullah said.
Being a super crime-fighting dog does not stop you being man’s best friend.