North East forces merge dog units in money-saving scheme
North Yorkshire Police, Cleveland Police and Durham Constabulary will join forces from today.
Three police forces in our region will share dog sections from today, in a bid to save money.
North Yorkshire Police, Cleveland Police and Durham Constabulary will be part of a new police dog service from today.
Cleveland and Durham had already been sharing a dog unit, but a decision has been made for a three-way merger by the Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables.
The forces say it will give them access to a larger pool of police dogs on each shift, including specialist police dogs, like drug dogs.
This merger is part of the Evolve programme, an initiative between the three forces to improve services and save money.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, Barry Coppinger, said: “The launch of the joint dog section today is good news for the people of Cleveland, North Yorkshire and Durham and it means significant savings for the public.
"Police dogs and their handlers will remain in Cleveland but will be more widely available across all three force areas, creating a stronger and more resilient service for our communities.”
Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, Iain Spittal, said: “The collaboration of the Dog Support Unit means that we are able to strengthen our resources in these challenging times and provide a more resilient service to our communities, with greater flexibility of our officers and specialist dogs available for deployment.
"Our police dogs will now be trained in the same way and will adopt the same operating tactics, meaning that across the three policing areas we can work more effectively together.”