Guidance on police dogs and horses – have your say

As part of our public order public safety (POPS) guidance, we're seeking feedback on new authorised professional practice (APP) we've developed for mounted police and police dog handlers. 

For each, we set out: 

• how forces can setup and run these sections effectively 
• the training and standards required, of both animals and officers and staff, to work within these specialist sections
• standards for animal welfare, care and management 
• how forces can use and deploy canine and equine colleagues effectively to support frontline policing

Mounted police 

Mounted police (police horses and riders) are used within policing for a variety of purposes, such as:

• public order and crowd control
• high-visibility patrols
• community engagement
• ceremonial duties

Police horses offer several advantages, including giving officers a higher vantage point to scan their surroundings and spot potential issues. It also allows officers to steer through crowded areas quickly and get to locations unreachable by car or bicycle.

Research has shown the presence of police horses and their riders on patrol in their community can boost the public’s confidence. 

Police dogs 

General purpose police dogs, such as German Shepherds, have a wide range of skills. They are often deployed to:

• assist officers with tracking and apprehending suspects
• support the policing of planned and unplanned events
• search for missing people
• recover evidence
• control other dangerous dogs
• protect their handler in dangerous situations

Other breeds, like Cocker Spaniels, Springer Spaniels and Labradors, can detect drugs, money, explosives and weapons with their sharp sense of smell.

As they approach retirement, many police dogs are retained as wellbeing dogs to support police officers and staff who have experienced trauma. The National Police Wellbeing Service, Oscar Kilo, makes wellbeing dogs available to all forces who wish to introduce a dog as part of their wellbeing provision through its OK-9 dogs scheme.

Read about a shift in the life of a dog handler in issue four of Going equipped.

Have your say