James Brotherhood's blog

Brighton Marathon

Hi everyone,  Please see the link below to my just giving page, have a look and donate what you can, thank you in advance! 

http://www.justgiving.com/JAMES-BROTHERHOOD

Sun 25 Mar 1:00PM

Brighton Marathon

Hi everyone,

Please see the link below to my just giving page, have a look and donate what you can, thank you in advance!

http://www.justgiving.com/JAMES-BROTHERHOOD

Sat 24 Mar 8:50PM

Whats the most exciting job you've ever attended??

Easy answer - any job that involves you catching a criminal with your dog! Especially finding them on track, tracking is the one discipline that a dog can do that no human can and these are the prisoners that would otherwise get away.

The first one has to be my first ever prisoner on track. I was called to a male who had decamped from a van and run off across fields, when i arrived i tasked my dog to track and we went off into the darkness across the fields when eventually i saw in the distance the suspect ahead of me. He turned around saw me and ran, i challenged several times and he did not stop so i sent my dog ( with a very big grin on my face!! ) Within seconds i heard a loud ‘OW OW’ and as i lit them up with my torch i could see my dog jumping up and the male as he kicked out at my dog (not a good idea).

I shouted at the male and called my dog back, after getting the suspect onto his knees and placing my dog in the down i told the male i was going to approaching and handcuff him and that he was not to make any sudden movements or the dog would bite him again. I approached him and began to handcuff him and as i did this the suspect lashed out with his right arm, before i could say boo to a goose my dog came forward in defence and bit the suspect. Who quickly regretted his foolish move!

The suspect was found to be several times over the drink drive limit and was very apologetic to me the next day ( oh and very sore)!!

Only last set of late shifts I had a track from 3 suspects who had decamped from a vehicle after breaking into two jewellers, PD Baxter and i tracked through fields and across drainage ditches before finding a discarded glove then continuing to track up to the rear of a large country house where we found a very well hidden suspect who had with him a holdall containing watches and jewellery worth over ten thousand pounds! There is no doubt that without PD Baxter this suspect would never have been found. Dog jobs don’t happen that often but when they do they are the BEST feeling in the world! Some say better than sex!!!

Fri 23 Mar 8:05PM

Whats the most difficult job you have ever attended??

You can attend numerous difficult jobs within your role as a Police officer and also within your role as a dog handler. I have three that spring to mind.

1. First on scene to a car crash where one vehicle was on fire and the driver (a young male ) had died inside. There was nothing I or the onlookers could do to help as the heat was so intense. Fortunately the male inside had died on impact so at least he did not suffer in the fire. The fall out and dealing with the witnesses was surreal.

2. A family dog had bitten a 3 year old child in the face after turning on the child during play, the child almost lost the side of her face. Such a small child with its whole life ahead and such a horrific injury. Luckily emergency surgery and the excellent work of surgeons kept the long term impact to a minimum.

3. I attended a building which had been broken into and the suspects had been seen inside, this was during a spate of burglaries to commercial premises. When i arrived the containment I asked for was on, the helicopter was above (as they had tried to escape out the roof) and the scene was full of excitement and adrenalin. I had put over the radio that the dog was going in and for all officers to be alert. So imagine my frustration ( and some what blue language ) when I sent my dog in the back for the suspects to run out the front past a Police officer looking the other way and off up the road!!!! I then spent hours searching for them but to no avail. I was not a happy bunny!!

Fri 23 Mar 12:00PM

Search dog update

Hi everyone,

As you saw from my post I a few months ago I had a search dog called Vinnie, Vinnie has now been re homed to a family as he was not suitable for search work. As of yesterday I have now got a cocker spaniel called Jarvis, he is a 20month old dog who has not worked in the search world before, we also have his brother Jo who will be working with PC Tony Oliver. Tony, the boys and I are on a course together in May and i’m sure we will all pass with flying colours!

I will be posting some photos of Jarvis very soon but pleased be warned he is very cute!!!

Thu 22 Mar 10:04PM

Frequently asked questions......

What does the dog unit do?

We have a variety of dogs and skills within the dog unit so I will break them down.

General purpose dogs GPD - A bit of an under rated title!

Searching - we search buildings or open areas for offenders, missing people or discarded property. Dogs can cover big buildings and large areas very efficiently often locating persons or property quickly saving the use of numerous officers.

Tracking - we track suspects who have recently left the scene of a crime who have left on foot, providing the area has not been too disturbed after the incident. This also applies to missing persons.

Public order - We sometimes get used in large scale incidents and more often on busy weekend shifts. The arrival of a dog and handler even without deploying from the van can often calm a situation. The barking dog and van rocking from side to side is often all it takes!

Chase and detain - We can deploy our dog to chase and detain a person who tries to flee the scene……….or run from Police.

FSD Firearms support dogs.

These are general purpose dogs who are additionally trained to work within a team of firearms officers, it takes a dog of a particular temperament to do this.

Search dogs.

These are normally Spaniels or Labradors and will either search for drugs, cash and firearms OR explosives. If they search for explosives then they search for this and this alone.

Can women be dog handlers??

Surprisingly I am often asked this and the answer is…..OF COURSE!!! Why not??!! This one always surprises me, in these diverse times of course women can become dog handlers as they can firearms officers and it is also encouraged. We have lots of ladies on our unit and they are all great and often better than us men!!

Where do our dogs live??

They live at home with us and our kennelled in our garden, the police provide kennels to us. They are very much a part of our lives and that of our families. As any handler who do they spend the most time with and who comes first, i bet they say the dogs!!

Police dog training - How old are they? How long does it take?

Police dogs start from about 12 months upwards, for GP dogs the initial training is course is a 13 week residential course. Drugs and explosives courses are also residential and are 6-8 weeks.

What happens when they retire??

More often than not they stay with the handler. Sometimes a handlers personal circumstances means they cannot keep them, such as lack of space inside or that the old dog does not get on with the new one. Each handler will always do their very best to keep their dog - even if it involves lots of separate dog walks!! Remember this dog has been their best friend and colleague for many years.

Sun 8 Jan 12:37PM

Why are dogs so good for the Police??

I guess this is a matter of opinion, if a dog has done well enough to pass the course (and a lot of them don’t) then they must be pretty good at their selected discipline. Therefore in my opinion they are good because they WANT to do it, they enjoy doing it and more than that they don’t lie. They are honest, hardworking and committed to the job, the best kind of Police officer you can ask for really! They do it for their toy, their food and the love of their handler.

Can the dogs go in the Police helicopter??

OH YEAH!!! And its great fun!! Now i must admit it does not happen very often but when it does its is something Baxter and i really enjoy, we go once a year to do a safety refresher flight which i have to say is no chore! The reason we go in the helicopter is to get to a scene quickly as time is of the essence with our job, due to the distances we cover the helicopter can get us there in 10 minutes which could take 50 minutes on a shout.

Sun 8 Jan 12:37PM

I'm getting a search doggie!!

Hi everyone and Happy new year!!

I apologise for the delay in writing more blogs I hope to be writing some more over the next few weeks. :)

I am very pleased to announce that I am due to get a search dog this year to work alongside PD Baxter, something I have always wanted. My search dog will be trained to search for drugs (a variety), cash and firearms. I expect it will be a Spaniel or Labrador and we will both be on a 6 week initial course from May this year.

This was the first year that an internal selection procedure was introduced within the unit this involved three phases - 1. A paper application 2. An exam 3. Practical assessment. The exam was based on the home office dog manual within the drugs section and also items from the search manual. I revised hard but to be honest I’m not afraid to admit I found it fairly hard, mainly because I don’t like exams (who does?!) and because when you want something you put undue pressure on your self.

The practical assessment was interesting! It involved two search scenarios with an operational search dog and the search of an area of open land using a special search technique. The two searches with the dog were great fun but as with a lot of things very different doing it for real as opposed to watching others do it!! However I really enjoyed it, I made some silly mistakes but the experience just confirmed my desire to become a search handler..

The open search was harder, much harder! It involved trying to locate hidden items using a system, however this system is very much open to interpretation as every persons outlook and perspective is different. This was also done with a time limit. I did allow the nerves and pressure to get to me on this one! None the less I located three out of the four hides so I must have been doing something right.

There was then an agonising wait over the weekend to find out if you were in the pool and I have to say I was overjoyed when I was told I was in, and even more over joyed a few weeks later when I was told to my surprise that I was going to be on a course this year! I have had to change teams to accommodate this, which has meant some adjusting with my home life but it will be well worth it. Its a good job i have a very understanding wife!!

I have not been allocated a dog yet but I hope this will be in the next couple of months and when I do I shall update you all and of course post some photos!

Sat 7 Jan 1:18PM

Life on the unit

The selection and success of dogs for police work is no fine art and is not easy……as you will see!!

An initial police dog course is 13 weeks. My first dog failed in week 13 as he was tracking animals and not humans!

My second dog was lovely and licenced successfully. We had our first prisoners who were hidden in a toilet after breaking into a school.

As time went on my dog did not deal well with confrontation and he was re-homed to a family. I then re-handled (took on a dog previously worked by another handler) a dog called Shadow. He and I really hit it off and we worked together successfully for 3 years. During this time we had some great results. He gave me my first prisoner on track and my first bite ( story to come later ), Shadow retired due to spine and hip problems like alot of shepherds do. A couple of months before he retired I was given a 12 month old puppy called Gunner who was a shepherd x mallinior who was nuts!! Shadow and Gunner had a couple of disagreements to say the least but eventually rubbed along fairly well. Shadows last shift was New years on a very icy frosty night and he gave me a fantastic track out through the fields of Arundel following a burglary to a builders merchants, we recovered their tools, then a glove. During the track he jumped a fairly small but deep frozen stream which i did not see and I ended up going through the ice up to my waist in frozen water!! We continued to track and found some of their wet clothing presumably after they had the same fate as me!!! It was a great track and he worked his socks off, a fitting way to end his career.

Shadow was now converting to retirement and I had made up a nice home for him in the kitchen. Gunner and I then started our 13 week course at the Surrey police dog school. It is residential Monday to Friday and you live, eat and breath the training, you get to mix with a wide range of handlers not only on our course but on other courses so you get some great advice and support. Its a tough course not just because it is outdoors and physically demanding but its the roller coaster of emotions when your dog does well, or not so well. The first few weeks were great and Gunner was a handful but he was a great dog if a little arrogant!

     I had been up on the course for about six weeks when back home Shadow started to deteriorate and I had several visits to the vets where we found out that the messages from the brain were not going down his spine causing all sorts of problems. After much discussion with the vet and other people the decision was made to have him put to sleep, probably the hardest decision I have had to make. The last night he spent with us he came up and slept in our bedroom, it still gets me now bless him. The next day he was collected by a colleague who was taking him to the vets for me, in hindsight I wish I had taken him myself but I had done it before with a pet dog and did not want to remember him like that. When my colleague collected him in uniform Shads was so excited he thought he was going back to work and promptly jumped up at him landing his paw in my colleagues privates!! He then toddled off to the dog van as happy as Larry which is the way i will remember him. Although we had not been together that long the bond we had was massive, we had spent so much time together and he had given so much to me and the job.

I returned back to the course with Gunner on the Monday and it was a tough week but i was amongst many people who had experienced this before which was a great help. I continued on the course and Gunners tracking started to go down hill mainly due to his arrogance really where some days he did it and some days he didn’t and it got to a point where he mainly didn’t! Gunner failed the course after 10 weeks, it was the right decision but tough after so long on the course and so soon after losing Shadow. I had gone from two dogs to no dogs!! I returned home from the course and a few weeks later myself and the senior Sussex instructor went to see some dogs which is where I saw and choose Baxter……………….

Mon 7 Nov 11:28PM

I want to join the dog section...

I have always wanted to work in the animal world and had always wanted to join the police - it was a typical childhood dream! I worked for myself once I left college and then I worked for family, before I put myself through some courses in animal welfare and handling of dogs.

I then got offered a job as a dog warden which involved me working away from home. This post was covering long-term sick leave. During this time I became a Special Constable in my home county Sussex.

During my time as a special I was privileged to be able to regularly work alongside response officers, mainly on weekend late and night shifts. During this time I was first on scene to a murder and watched the suspect get arrested. I rolled around with violent prisoners and many other things. However, when I first saw a dog handler I knew that was where my heart lay and I wanted to follow that dream.

At the end of my contract as a dog warden I was offered a full time role, but I decided to return to Sussex and to join the police.

I joined the police in 2001 after being a special for about 18 months. I was first stationed at Bognor Regis, which I loved. I moved to Littlehampton for a short time before joining the dog section in 2004. This was the second time I had applied but I still felt lucky to be successful when I had only been in the job for three years full time. That said, I worked hard - it was my passion and still is. The selection procedure was tough. I think one of the hardest in the Force - and rightly so. To do this job you have to want it and be prepared to give a lot more than people think.

Tue 25 Oct 6:00PM