Six new police officers
will hit the streets in the Cayman Islands,
putting an additional 12 pairs of legs on the beat.
The Royal Cayman Islands
Police Service K-9 Unit is back.
The five Belgian Malinois
and one German Shepherd will be “much more visible” over the coming weeks as the
K-9 Unit resumes its full duties, according to the RCIPS. The animals arrived in
Cayman in March, but have largely been kept in training programmes with their
new handlers after being shipped over from Europe.
The dogs, all between two
and four years old, will replace the remainder of the RCIPS K-9 unit dogs, all
of which were past their prime and hadn’t been actively used for some time.
The six pups will be on
routine patrol on Grand Cayman, but
Superintendent Kurt Walton said each animal has its own specialty; two are
trained to locate drugs, two are trained to take down criminal suspects and two
are used to ferret out firearms and ammunition.
During Friday’s public
demonstration, police displayed the animals’ capability in sniffing out drugs
and even put on a demonstration of how a dog can be used to take down a suspect
(using a willing volunteer).
“Really for the last year
we’ve been struggling with just four handlers,” Mr. Walton said. “K-9 is back up
to full strength.”
Please see more next week
in the Caymanian Compass…
Related Videos
The video on this is great! Love those dogs and their handlers.