Tauranga Constables Scott Higby and Dave Balck and their police dogs ‘Chip' and ‘Oslo' are key tactical operations, when it comes to tracking people and solving crime in our city.

The policemen and their fury workmates recently graduated from the Dog Training Centre, which formally sent out 22 police boots and 44 paws to help make New Zealand's communities safer.

'When I joined the Police I realised that dog handling is probably the coolest job you could do in the Police,” says Scott.

Training his police dog ‘Chip' for a year, Scott is new on the dog-handling scene, whereas Dave has been a Police dog-handler for six years.

'It doesn't get old – it's really exciting to get back out there with a new dog and see what happens,” says Dave.

Matched up

Handlers and their police dogs get matched based on their individual attitudes, says Scott. 'Our boss tries to line our dog's personalities up with ours, so he just looks at them and thinks that dogs a bit like him and then matches us.”

Training for police dogs follows a repetitive structure and can take 12-18 months until a dog is ready for the field. 'We train them to do tracking people, searching buildings, finding articles such as things people might leave behind when they leave crimes or use in crimes, and apprehending people,” says Scott.

Although the role of the handler and the police dog is varied, both Scott and Dave enjoy catching criminals the most. 'If you've had a really good track with the dog – it's really good fun,” says Dave.

'We've caught one person so far in our first week, which was just awesome, and it makes you just want to do that more,” says Scott about working with ‘Chip'.

Dave says the role of the handler and police dog team is massive. 'It's the one tactical operation that we have that everyone wants to see turn up,” says Dave.

Constable David Balck and ‘Oslo' have been a dynamic duo for more than four months. Photo: Georgia Minkhorst/SunLive.

Crucial

'It's just a good sense when we're out on the frontline working with everyone,” says Scott. 'We're not always just tracking people with our dogs but have them there in case we're dealing with wild and aggressive people which is reassuring.”

He adds that dogs do what Police cannot do as people. 'We can do a whole lot of things when it comes to the Police but if someone runs into the bush or runs away from cars – we can't find them with our noses but they can, and just having that is really important.”

Scott says police dog tracking skills are especially crucial in the current climate of ram raids, robberies and stolen cars. 'We wouldn't get very far without them…[offenders] are quite often dumping cars and running away so it's really the dogs connecting those dots,” says Scott.