Police dog Rosie. Credit: Derbyshire Constabulary
An extremely unique forensic search dog project pioneered by Derbyshire Constabulary (UK) just recorded its first success—only 36 hours after Police Dog April completed her training program.
April’s 6-week training program wasn’t focused on searching for human remains or explosives; rather, April is now one of three dogs in the UK trained to detect very small amounts of seminal fluid.
April, who was joined in the training program by Rosie, can now pinpoint tiny amounts of seminal fluid without being distracted by other scents. The noses of the seminal fluid search dogs are so sharp they can detect as little as 0.016 mL of fluid, sometimes years after it has been deposited.
“It’s fantastic to welcome Rosie and April to the team,” said police constable Dean Allen, who led the training. “Their training as seminal fluid dogs has been extremely thorough to test and prove their ability so they can best assist CSI. In the last six weeks they’ve learnt to identify and search for that scent in numerous scenarios that we’ve set up for them: indoors, outdoors, in vehicles, on grass, tarmac and materials, such as bedding and clothing.”
The extensive training came into play right away for April, who was put to the test only 36 hours after returning to the Cheshire Constabulary with her training graduate certificate in paw.
April and her handler, police constable Steve Gunn, were called to investigate the scene of an alleged sexual assault on a 10-year-old girl. After agreeing to a forensic strategy with the CSI, April commenced a systematic search of the girl’s bedroom and eventually indicated the presence of semen on the young girl’s duvet. The item was subsequently seized and submitted for forensic examination.
“This is an early example of how this pairing of police dog April and police constable Gunn will be a huge asset, [helping] to prosecute sexual predators and safeguard victims,” said Chief Inspector Simon Newell, head of Alliance Policing, responsible for Armed Policing and Police Dogs for Cheshire and North Wales.
More prosecutions
The training, developed by Derbyshire’s Dog Section and Crime Scene Investigators, has changed the way in which sexual offences are investigated in England since its launch in 2016. Police dog Sybil and her colleague, now-retired Billie, have helped put serious offenders behind bars up and down the country.
Now 15-month-old April, from the Cheshire/North Wales Alliance, and 15-month-old Rosie, based at Derbyshire, have been welcomed to the team—and are already making their impact known.
All three dogs can indicate the presence of seminal fluid in places traditional kits can’t detect it. Once the dogs have identified the scent, the evidence—be it clothing, bedding, vegetation, or anything else—is collected and sent to the lab for DNA analysis. The DNA profiles extracted from these items, which likely would be overlooked in a normal investigation, haven proven to lead to more prosecutions.
“The end result is for us to capture sexual offenders who historically have gone missed due to the very difficult way of trying to find seminal fluid in crime scenes,” said Allen. “[With the dogs], we can go into a crime scene and say ‘this patch here, this area of carpet, or this piece of tarmac contains human seminal fluid.’ We can send that to the lab and get these people DNA profiled and caught. That’s multiplying the amount of people who are going to jail for these sexual offenses.”
Forces across England can now request the help of newly trained April and Rosie, as well as Sybil. While there is no specified forensic time window for the dogs to attend a crime scene, Allen and handlers say contact should be made at the earliest opportunity.