The narcotics sniffer dog that the Pune police has may take the cops on a wrong trail. While the experts say such dogs must sniff samples of drugs at least once a week, the city police simply do not follow the norm.
Experts at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) say if the dogs do not sniff samples regularly, they would not be able to detect drugs.
They said in the entire state only two units, Pune city police and Nagpur railway police, have narcotics sniffers.
Fattehsingh Patil, superintendent of police (CID-administration) told DNA, “Labradors and Alsatians are trained from the age of 6 months to become narcotics sniffer. The training goes on for 9 months for the dog as well as its two handlers, who are constables. They are trained in obedience, discipline, word of command, understanding drugs and reacting to them.”
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Gokul Borkar, additional superintendent of police (CID) told DNA, “After the training they undergo 100 marks test and every year they are again called for refreshment training. The handlers must make them sniff drug samples every week so that they remember the smell well. Sniffers are used by the department till the age of 10 years after which they retire. Only male dogs are used and mating is not allowed.”
Senior inspector Satish Deore, who is incharge of anti-narcotics cell of Pune police, told DNA, “Possession of drugs itself is an offence. Therefore we cannot keep the samples for training the dogs. But they practise four hours daily. We do not use sniffers while working out concrete tip-offs. They are used during house or area search.”
