HOTLINE: Dog trained to sniff out stolen metal

Hotline was interested to hear this week that the world’s first detection dog has been trained in the UK to sniff out forensic markings on stolen metal.

Instead of locating drugs or human remains, a two-year old black Labrador called Jazz has been trained by former police officer Mick Swindells to locate SelectaDNA forensic markings on a range of metals, including copper, lead and aluminium.

SelectaDNA is being used in many police-backed crime reduction initiatives across the UK to protect copper cable from metal theft.

Jazz is able to sniff out stolen metal in places like scrapyards, where metal is often piled high and any containing forensic markings is not immediately visible to the human eye.

“Jazz is a world first. She has been trained to sniff out SelectaDNA, which is a unique covert security marker being used by more than 75% of UK police forces to track down burglars, robbers and metal thieves and bring them to justice,” said Swindells.

“As humans we can only search in 2D, ie in the line of sight, but dogs can search in 3D by using their noses. They can be incredibly accurate and can pinpoint their target to within a couple of centimetres,” he added.

Hotline wonders whether this could be the start of a new revolution in the fight against metals theft.

editorial@metalbulletin.com