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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 3 (July 1, 1933)

The Police Dog Patrol System

The Police Dog Patrol System.

While the influence of Belgium on world railway operation may not have been so great as that of some other European lands, credit for one exceedingly useful development taken up by the British lines may rightly be claimed by our Belgian friends. This is the police dog patrol system, as employed extensively to-day on many British railway-owned dock premises. In the protection of railway property in England, canine guards play a big part, and it was from Ghent, Belgium, that police dogs first were imported.

In the beginning, it was the alarming increase of pilfering and the frequency of fire outbreaks caused by trespassers on railway property which led to Britain's acquisition of police dogs from Belgium. In the protection of the railway watchman in his responsible duties, and in detecting the presence of suspicious characters on railway property, the canine patrols have proved of incalculable value. The dogs employed are of the Airedale breed, and work only by night, regarding anyone other than a properly uniformed watchman as an enemy. Sufficiently strong to floor and pin down any intruder, the mere fact that the dogs are known to be in daily employment has resulted in a striking diminution in the number of suspects frequenting railway premises.