Hundreds of police dogs to be deployed for duties during COP26

Almost 200 police dogs will be deployed to help support the delivery of a safe and secure COP26.

The general purpose and specialist dogs will take part in various duties in preparation for and during the conference, which will see one of the biggest mobilisation of police assets in the UK.

Some of the police dog deployments will include helping to seal and secure key venues and sites associated with COP26, assisting with vehicle searches and providing public order support if required.

The Service have three types of police dog, general purpose dogs for crowd control, finding missing persons and to pursue and detain suspects in relation to criminal activity. Specialist dogs are used to search for drugs, money, guns or ammunition and explosive detection dogs are skilled in searching various locations and venues for devices.

Police Scotland’s dog unit is just one of the specialist resources that will be deployed during COP26 to ensure the safety of all involved including World Leaders and Heads of State, delegates, and members of the public.

Chief Inspector Cath McNally, said: “Our police dogs are highly trained and will be providing a vital resource to the policing of this major event to help keep people safe.

“Our general purpose, specialist and explosive detection dogs will all be utilised in the run up to and during COP26 to support a screening and search processes and to support other police deployments where required.

“The dogs are also training for incidents of serious disorder but we hope that they won’t be required. If they are, then they will perform to the same standard of excellence that they are trained for every single day”.

More information on the policing response to COP26 can be found on the COP26 section of our website.