The City of Cape Town’s Metals Theft Unit (MTU), also known as the Copperheads, has established a K-9 Unit to aid them in the fight against metals theft in Cape Town.
Four members of the MTU were recently sent on a four week dog handler’s course, and as a result are now fully qualified dog handlers. This process was initiated by the Head of the Unit, Assistant Chief Neil Arendse, as a means to aid the officers in detecting stolen copper and aluminium cable.
The two sniffer dogs that will be assisting the officers were trained through a variety of exercises that aim to simulate conditions they will be experiencing in the field, as well as instill a sense of obedience. The handlers, on the other hand, were trained in terms of how to bond with the dogs, handle them off the leash, and issue commands to them.
The official launch of the new unit took place on Thursday, 22 November 2012, where a short introductory demonstration as to how they will operate in the field was presented.
“This event should be seen as an historic moment for the City’s Law Enforcement Services,” said Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.
“Specialist dogs work in a variety of law enforcement and military functions, detecting a wide range of specific scents that they have been trained to recognise,” he continued. “Detecting the presence of copper is just one more field in which they excel.”
“With the aid of these new members, the Metals Theft Unit will now be able to search for copper in a variety of concealed locations. To offer an idea of how effective they can be, a human’s sense of smell relies on an area of membrane the size of a postage stamp – in a dog this is the size of an A4 sheet of paper. This keen sense of smell allows these dogs to find stolen copper even with the introduction of disguising odours.”
So the word is out for copper thieves: Beware, the noose just got tighter. The next nose that sticks itself into your (illegal) business might be a cold and wet one!
