Commissioned police dog competition: Active in criminal investigations, missing person searches, etc.[Tokushima](Posted on October 30, 2024) | JRT NEWS NNN

A competition for commissioned police dogs, which are used in criminal investigations and searches for missing persons, was held in Tokushima City on October 30th.

This competition is held by the prefectural police twice a year, in the spring and fall, to improve police dogs’ tracking and scent detection abilities.

On the 30th, a total of 10 dogs participated, including prefectural police contracted police dogs and dogs currently in training as police dogs.

The competition consists of “Footprint Tracking,” in which the route of a person who walked is traced based on smell to find artifacts left behind, and “Footprint Tracking,” in which the route of a person who walked is traced based on smell, and a designated odor is detected from among five types of cloth placed 10 meters away. The two subjects were “odor sorting,” which involves finding the same thing as a person.

The dogs participated in the competition together with their trainers and seemed to be showing the results of their daily training.

The prefectural police will commission commissioned police dogs for 2025 based on the results of these competitions and past dispatch records.

According to the prefectural police, there are currently 15 commissioned police dogs working in the prefecture, and by 2024, police dogs will be dispatched 34 times in the prefecture to search for missing persons.