Strathclyde Police to Cut Dog Unit

Tue, 15 Dec 2009

Strathclyde Police are being forced to slash the number of police dogs and dog handlers on its team in an effort to cut costs. The police force claim that new shift patterns and better ways of working that will be introduced next year will enable the unit to become more efficient, reducing its resources in the dog handling unit by half.

Affected dog handlers will be offered positions elsewhere in the force, though it remains to be seen if they are offered acceptable packages. Meanwhile, the unwanted animals will either remain with their handlers as pets, or can be sold to other police forces in the UK. The dogs are kept in healthy condition and have access to vets .

A recent review of the dog branch found that it was not cost efficient, having assessed how and where the dogs were deployed. As a result, it was decided that the number of dogs was not cost efficient given the number of arrests and operations they had been involved in.

Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, Fiona Taylor, pointed to the force’s responsibility to put its forces to ‘best use’. Mrs Taylor claims that the cuts are being made in the public interest.

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