The RGP will be publishing a short weekly feature about one of their officers every Friday. This week's article features Police Dog Ness:

We will curTAIL this series of articles by getting to know Police Dog Ness…  

‘Hi everyone! I’m Police Dog Ness, you’ve probably seen me around. I’m the good-looking  German Shepherd that usually has PC Janssen Olivero on the other end of his lead. I’ll tell  you more about him later. 

‘Just so that you can get to know me a bit better, I am 6 years old and I grew up in Sheffield  as part of the South Yorkshire Police puppy-breeding programme, one of the best training  schools in the UK. 

‘It was at Sheffield that I first met Janssen who was there specially to train with me – and we  are still working together six years later. It just shows how well I trained him! 

‘And I have a longer title than Janssen so I’m probably more important. Officially I am a  General Purpose Police Dog and I am trained and licensed to carry out 3 main tasks: 

 Detection Work – which means I can track, search houses and buildings and even open spaces for bad people, missing people and even special objects of interest. Public Protection and High Visibility Patrolling 

Stop and Detain by biting. I am trained not to release the target person until I am  commanded to do so but, when I’m around, everyone tends to behave themselves  so, in my entire career, I have never needed to bite anyone for real. 

‘Every year I need to pass an exam to show that I can still carry out each of these roles. I’ll  probably retire when I am 7 or 8 because it’s RGP policy that I should have a long and happy  retirement at the end of my working life. 

‘I’ve had quite a few success stories in my career. I remember a couple of years ago that a  bad man had used a screwdriver as a weapon during a fight in the Upper Town. The  screwdriver was a vital piece of evidence but no-one could find where it had been  hidden. Then they remembered that I had a good nose for finding things and, within a few  minutes, I had found the screwdriver hidden underneath a pile of builders’ rubble. I also 

remember making Janssen really happy one night whilst we were taking a walk by the  beach. Janssen didn’t know it but I could smell loads of people hiding in the dark nearby ….. I remember barking so loudly at them that they all came out from where they were hiding  and ran away, some of them even jumped into the water, which looked really cold. 

‘You may have seen that I now have a new friend in the kennels. Young Police Dog Stitch is  being trained to be a Drug Detection dog but, of course, I have lots of good experience  which I can pass on to him. Janssen says that I am an excellent role model for Stitch. 

‘The big news from Stitch and me is that we are soon to move into some excellent new  kennels up near the frontier. These new kennels are so brilliant that they must have been  designed by a dog! They have proper beds, baths, grooming areas, exercise runs, vet areas  – all designed to give us lots of shade when the sun is out. Nothing has been forgotten.  They really are 5 Star luxury and we can’t wait to move in.  

‘I think it’s now time for me to introduce you to my man handler, PC Janssen Olivero. He has  been a police officer for 24 years and he carried out several types of work before he  successfully applied to join the Dog Section about 8 years ago. Janssen and I work really  hard together to be the best team we can be so that we can help to keep Gibraltar safe.  When I’m not working, I love to play ‘Fetch’ with Janssen. He throws the ball out for me to  chase and I always bring it back to him so he can throw it out some more. Janssen must  really like playing this game. When he finishes work he then goes off to teach the Gibraltar  Women’s Football Team to play with a ball, but they all run after the same one instead of  each having their own ball! And, instead of picking it up, they kick the ball around and run  after it again …..crazy humans! 

Janssen says, ‘I really love working with the dogs. It is very rewarding work because dogs do  not tell any lies. You get out of the dogs exactly what you put into the job’. 

Police Dog Ness is keen to include a mention for the other officers in the Dog Section, PC  Emma Rowbottom and PC Radka Almeida. ‘They help with our training and our exercise,’  says Ness. ‘They also feed us and generally take care of us, especially when Janssen isn’t  around. 

‘Stitch and I are getting on really well and it would be good if we could get some more new  dogs to join us. Hopefully, Emma and Radka can soon have their own General Purpose  Police Dogs and I reckon we could always use another Drug Detection dog to help young  Stitch. It would be great to have two new friends to play with and I might even ask for early  retirement…. they say Florida is nice this time of year!!!’ 

So next time you see Police Dog Ness, do say ‘Hello’ but remember that when she is out in  the street, she is always working. She might be Tracking, Patrolling or preparing to Stop and  Detain. Oh yes, and please say ‘Hello’ to her man handler, too!