Police dog

A police dog, also known as a K-9 (phonemic abbreviation of canine), is a dog that is trained to assist police and other law enforcement officers. Their duties may include searching for drugs and explosives, locating missing people, finding crime scene evidence, protecting officers and other people, and attacking suspects who flee from officers. The breeds most commonly used by law enforcement are the German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, Bloodhound, Dutch Shepherd, and Labrador Retriever. In recent years, the Belgian Malinois has become the leading choice for police and military work due to their intense drive, focus, agility, and smaller size, though German Shepherds remain the breed most associated with law enforcement.

Police dogs are used on a federal and local level for law enforcement purposes in many parts of the world. They are often assigned to what in some nations is referred to as a K-9 Unit, with a specific handler, and must remember several verbal cues and hand gestures. Initial training for a police dog typically takes between eight months and a year, depending on where and how they are trained, and for what purpose. Police dogs often regularly take training programs with their assigned handler to reinforce their training. In many countries, intentionally injuring or killing a police dog is a criminal offense.

Dogs have been used in law enforcement since the Middle Ages. Wealth and money was then tithed in the villages for the upkeep of the parish constable's bloodhounds that were used for hunting down outlaws.^{[clarification needed]} The first recorded use of police dogs was in the early 14th century in St. Malo, France, where dogs were used to guard docks and piers. By the late 14th century, bloodhounds were used in Scotland, known as "Slough dogs" – the word "Sleuth", (meaning detective) was derived from this. Between the 12th and 20th centuries, police dogs on the British Isles and European continent were primarily used for their tracking abilities.

The rapid urbanization of England and France in the 19th century increased public concern regarding growing lawlessness. In London, the existing law enforcement, the Bow Street Runners, struggled to contain the crime on their own, and as a result, private associations were formed to help combat crime. Night watchmen were employed to guard premises, and were provided with firearms and dogs to protect themselves from criminals.^{[citation needed]}

One of the first attempts to use dogs in policing was in 1889 by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police of London, Sir Charles Warren. Warren's repeated failures at identifying and apprehending the serial killer Jack the Ripper had earned him much vilification from the press, including being denounced for not using bloodhounds to track the killer. He soon had two bloodhounds trained for the performance of a simple tracking test from the scene of another of the killer's crimes. The results were far from satisfactory, with one of the hounds biting the Commissioner and both dogs later running off, requiring a police search to find them.

It was in Continental Europe that dogs were first used on a large scale. Police in Paris began using dogs against roaming criminal gangs at night, but it was the police department in Ghent, Belgium that introduced the first organized police dog service program in 1899. These methods soon spread to Austria-Hungary and Germany; in the latter the first scientific developments in the field took place with experiments in dog breeding and training. The German police selected the German Shepherd Dog as the ideal breed for police work and opened up the first dog training school in 1920 in Greenheide. In later years, many Belgian Malinois dogs were added to the unit. The dogs were systematically trained in obedience to their officers and tracking and attacking criminals.

In Britain, the North Eastern Railway Police were among the first to use police dogs in 1908 to put a stop to theft from the docks in Hull. By 1910, railway police forces were experimenting with other breeds such as Belgian Malinois, Labrador Retrievers, and German shepherds.

Popular dog breeds used by law enforcement include the Airedale terrier, Akita, Groenendael, Tervueren, Malinois dog, Bernese Mountain Dog, Bloodhound, Border Collie, Boxer, Bouvier des Flandres, Briard, Cane Corso, Bullmastiff, Croatian Sheepdog, Doberman Pinscher, German Shepherd, German Shorthaired Pointer, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Rottweiler, English Springer Spaniel and Dogo Argentino.