ANIMALS have been helping police in their work for well over 100 years. Mounted police are still used for crowd control to this day - as well as being a great way of engaging with members of the public. Police dogs, meanwhile, are used for sniffing out drugs, catching offenders and tracking missing people.
A recent Facebook post by North Yorkshire Police gave a fascinating insight into how the way animals help the police has changed down the years. We reproduce an edited version of the post here. Some of the photos come from the police post. Others are from our own archive...
“Trusty, loyal and hard-working – we’ve always had such a close connection with our police animals. They may have jobs to do, but they’re also meticulously cared for and their handlers usually form lifelong bonds.
“Over the past century or so, things have changed. If you needed our help in 1910, there’s a good chance we’d have turned up on horseback. Our original rapid response!
"Horses were our main mode of transport until they were gradually replaced by patrol cars, motorbikes and bicycles from about 1916. Officers who rode were given extra money to stable, shoe and feed their steed.
“Horses weren’t just ridden – long before police cars, police carts were used to transport supplies, officers and even prisoners. The role of the police horse changed a lot from the mid 20th century. North Yorkshire’s mounted unit was disbanded just over 20 years ago. But we still sometimes use a mounted section based in West Yorkshire Police.
An early police cart (pictured at Bedale Police Station) of the kind used to transport supplies, officers and prisoners. Picture: North Yorkshire Police
“We officially began using trained dogs in 1913 to find “persons lurking in gardens, shrubberíes or other places with felonious intent”, as the chief at the time put it. Before that many rural constables had trained their own. Many at the time were bloodhounds and Airedales – breeds we no longer use. They were good at following the scent of missing people.
“We phased dogs out a few years later, only to bring them back in the 1930s. Today, we use different breeds for different purposes. But all our police dogs play an invaluable role in catching offenders, locating drugs ... and tracking missing people.”
Two rural North Yorkshire officers pictured in 1911 with their dogs. Picture: North Yorkshire Police
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