Hampshire Police Dog Unit proves its worth in 2024 helping find missing people, track suspects and even police the Paralympics

The Joint Operations Dog Support Unit has helped Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary in a number of different areas in 2024. This includes helping to find a missing man in Gosport and ensuring the safety of thousands of people attending the D-Day 80 commemorative event in Southsea.

All in all, including the work it does with Thames Valley Police, since April 2024, the dogs and their handlers have recovered almost £28,000 in cash and more than £405,000 worth of drugs. They have also located a number of weapons including two machetes, six knives, a sword, a set of nun chucks, two hammers, three firearms and 200 shot gun shells.

Locally, they came to the aid of a missing man in Gosport in October. With bad weather blighting an extensive search attempt, police dog Ivan was able to pick up the man’s scent and led PC Laurence Taylor to him to ensure he was brought to safety.

The dog unit also played a crucial role in an event that saw the world’s attention fall on Portsmouth. The D-Day 80 commemorative event in June saw dignitaries from across the world, as well as His Majesty the King, attend Southsea to remember and honour the heroes that set sail for Normandy in 1944. The dog unit carried out searches of the event site in the lead up to the event.

It was not the only major event that the dog unit attended in 2024. In August, dog handlers PC Paul Shutler and PC Dan Attwood and their explosive search dogs PD Cody and PD Arlo, travelled to the 2024 Paralympics as part of an international policing operation.

These are a selection of contributions that have been made by the dog unit in 2024. Tim Lawrence, dog unit instructor, said: “As you can see from just these few examples, our specialist unit is ready for whatever is needed from them.

“The dog unit consists of various disciplines, starting off with general purpose dogs, then we have firearms support dogs, specialist search with two different kinds of drugs dogs. We also have data dogs which are taught to find digital equipment like phones and sim cards, explosive search dogs and victim recovery dogs. They are vitally important to all of those specialist search areas.

“It’s really rewarding to be part of their training. We put a lot of time and effort into training these dogs and when we get the results that come through it's brilliant to see that the dogs are doing what they’re trained to do and how they benefit the constabulary and our communities.”

Superintendent Mark Lewis added: “The Joint Operations Unit Dog Section is a key element in the force’s relentless pursuit of criminals. You may not always see the work that they’re doing, but they are vital in helping us support our communities and keeping you safer.”

Click here to find out about The News’ free emails and get the headlines delivered to your inbox