Black Labrador Jazz is helping police to literally sniff out stolen property in the county.
She is working alongside officers from Cheshire Police as part of Operation Shield.
As part of the initiative, around 1,000 property marking kits have been delivered to homes in burglary hot-spots across the county allowing residents to forensically mark their valuables with a traceable liquid. The system is unique to each address and helps identify stolen items if they are recovered.
This is where Jazz comes in because she is trained to search out items marked with the unique DNA system. Earlier in March, the sniffer dog spent the morning in Chester where she searched a home after a warrant was executed and had a good sniff around a second-hand shop with the full cooperation of the business.
Sergeant Ian Wilson, from Chester Outer Neighbourhood Policing Team, said: “Enlisting the help of the dog is another powerful tool in the fight against burglary and theft in Cheshire. Jazz has been specifically trained to pick up the scent of the forensic marking fluid and is currently the only dog in the world trained to do so.
“On this occasion, no stolen items were found but it allowed Jazz to show off her skills and to reinforce how much of an asset she will be as part of the operation. Within minutes of searching she had indicated that there were no items marked with the forensic liquid − potentially saving officers a lot of time when searching a room for stolen items.”
Later Jazz was tasked with searching for stolen property marked with the traceable liquid in a test environment at Cheshire Police′s Winsford headquarters.
The dog searched a room, about 14ft square, which was full of boxes and equipment. A camera, which had been marked with the traceable liquid, was hidden away. When Jazz was let into the room she made a bee-line straight to the camera and indicated she had detected something.
If suspected stolen property is recovered it can be analysed by taking a sample of the traceable liquid and the DNA code is then checked against a database revealing to which property or business it is registered.
Sgt Wilson added: “We recover a lot of items, which are believed to be stolen, but often struggle to reunite them with their owners simply because we have no way of knowing who they are. With this system your property can be traced back to you quickly and easily even if it is recovered from the other end of the country.”
When at a work, a small tabard is placed over Jazz by the handler to let her know she needs to start looking for the traceable liquid. If an item is located, the handler indicates to Jazz via a device, which makes a clicking sound, to let her know she has been successful. The incentive to find something is her ball, which she gets to play with as a reward.
