Metropolitan Police Dog Support Unit
The Dog Support Unit (DSU) is a Central Operations (CO) branch of London's Metropolitan Police, providing trained police dogs and police officer handlers.[1] Dogs are used operationally by the force in a variety of ways, from public order and tackling violent offenders to searching for human remains and detecting drugs and explosives.[1] They are usually based at police stations which are central to the operational area.
The DSU is made up of five units distributed across London:[1]
- Unit 1: Hillingdon, based at West Drayton police station
- Unit 2: Redbridge, based at Claygate House in Chigwell
- Unit 3: Lewisham, based at Catford traffic garage
- Unit 4: Merton, based at Merton traffic garage
- Unit 5: Wandsworth, based at Nine Elms police office
Other management and support functions are carried out at the Command Unit headquarters at Wapping.
Each unit provides a 24-hour response. Units 1 to 4 have general purpose (GP) dogs, usually German or Belgian Shepherds, and drugs or firearms detection dogs. Unit 5 provides an additional explosives search dog capability.[1]
GP dogs are typically used to track suspects or missing persons, to apprehend offenders and also to search buildings and find recently-discarded property or evidence. Certain GP dogs are also trained to locate firearms and human remains. Drugs dogs are specialised in locating controlled drugs, either hidden on persons or elsewhere.[1]
