Around 200 police dogs will be brought in to help COP26 in Glasgow run safely
They've been getting high intensity training with officers ahead of the two-week event in November.
Last updated 22nd Sep 2021
Almost 200 police dogs are being deployed to help support the safe delivery of COP26 in Glasgow in November.
They have been taking part in training courses with a range of officers ahead of the two week climate conference.
Chief Inspector and head of the West dog branch, Cath McNally, said: "The dogs are split into two different types.
"We have our general purpose dogs which we will be using for COP26 and they could be particularly useful when it comes to public order.
"They have been involved in training with public order officers and this involves exposing the dogs to a large scale disorder situation."
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Officers say they aren't expecting climate protests during the event to turn violent, but they want the animals to be ready for this type of scenario should something serious happen.
Cath added: "We would only deploy the dogs to high levels of disorder and some of them have been getting high intensity training for these situations over the last 8 weeks."
Explosive detection dogs will also be on hand to search vehicles for suspicious substances.
Constable David McIntyre said: "The dogs are trained to work in any environment whether that is in a building like the Hydro or the SEC or a large open area such as George Square.
"We conduct our training scenarios in different venues."
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