In our midst, in Guildford, is a place where man’s best friend learns to become a fully qualified member of the police force: Surrey Police HQ, home to Surrey Police’s Dog School and Communications Department. I was lucky enough to visit recently to gain more of an insight into the work of my local police force and hear from some people who work in different roles there.

I met Peter Greenfield, the chief instructor at the Surrey Police Dog School, and member of the Surrey and Sussex Police Force for 42 years. Peter joined the police force straight from school, and later worked with the dogs as a handler himself before retiring several years ago. Since then, he has returned to work in their team of civilian staff as a trainer at the Dog School. As a handler, he worked 4 general purpose dogs and 3 explosive search dogs.

Peter explained to me how the force uses dogs in several sections including: general purpose dogs, drug search dogs, explosive search dogs, digital search dogs, and victim search dogs. All dogs have a specific role and typically German Shepherds are used as general purpose dogs, but gundogs are selected for specific search roles due to their brilliant sense of smell and their drive, allowing them to find even the smallest samples of material.

Surrey Police breed the dogs themselves too, so that they have plenty of successful puppies to train as police dogs. At just 49 days old, using an adapted Volhard Test, Surrey Police can gain an understanding as to whether the puppies will succeed and, in general, they find an 80% success rate. The talented puppies are then taken on by ‘puppy walkers’, who are people that care for and train the dogs for a year along with regular check-ups and training at the school, before the school takes them back to begin their specialised training at 14 months old. The puppies are named by a letter of the alphabet assigned to their litter to enable Surrey Police to keep track of how old they are, and where they come from.

There are 47 dedicated handlers who serve Surrey all day and all night on a rota under the control of 4 sergeants. As well as training dogs to use themselves, Surrey Police also provide and train dogs for international police forces, sharing their expertise to set up strong dog units all across the world. Peter has been part of many of these training courses, and recounted to me the pride he felt for all the dogs and handlers he has had a part in training which allow Surrey Police to serve communities local and further away, and help all those people living within them.

Laura Richards, a Communications Manager at Surrey Police, described the work Surrey Police does to keep the community engaged with their work. Within the department, there are 30 members of the Communications Team, working across a variety of departments with different roles.

Surrey Police engage heavily with social media to promote online campaigns for purposes such as recruitment, personal safety, and to keep the community up to date with what the force is working on. For example, recently Surrey Police have promoted their ‘Spook a Burglar’ campaign, encouraging people to protect themselves and their properties from burglars, and letting them know how. Laura also shared with me the part Surrey Police held in Her Majesty the Queen’s funeral, briefing, transporting, and recording the involvement of 1000 officers when the funeral car moved through Surrey for just 20 minutes.

If you are interested to find out more information about Surrey Police and the work they get up to, you can visit the website, or any of their social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Alternatively, you can keep an eye out for their open day in Spring 2023 where visitors will be welcomed to find out more about the work Surrey Police does, and how to get involved with the force.