Land and unused premises wanted: Northamptonshire Police dogs need your help!

Police are asking for support from local businesses or members of the public, who may be able to provide training grounds for their new intake of trainee police dogs and handlers.

Potential training grounds would ideally be disused or empty commercial premises, such as a school or large building. The training grounds could also be large rural areas such as woodlands or agricultural fields not currently being used.

These premises would provide valuable space for specialist search dogs to train alongside their handlers and get those professional hands on skills to fight crime and protect the people of Northamptonshire.

Sergeant Chris Monday, of the Force’s Dog Section, said: “It’s very important to keep the locations fresh and unfamiliar to our trainee dogs, which is why we are looking to expand our list of current available locations.

“We rely heavily on the kind support from the public to provide spaces for realistic training, to ensure we can train our police dogs and prepare them for real world, crime fighting situations.”

The Northamptonshire Police dog section is set to increase by 50 per cent over the coming months after an investment from the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, Stephen Mold. This will be the largest growth the team has seen in recent years.

This means the team will be increased from 10 to 15 handlers with each officer working alongside a specialist search dog. Three dog units will be on duty at any one time across the county, thus the Force will be able to use the unique crime fighting skills of the police dogs more frequently.

Anyone who may be able to assist in providing potential locations is invited to contact Sergeant Chris Monday via email: [email protected].

To find out more about the work of the Force’s Police Dog Section, you can follow them on Twitter.