JCF importing more tracking dogs - Canines unleashed in hunt for Jasmine Deen, cop killer
Published:Friday | June 26, 2020 | 12:10 AMKaren Oliver/Gleaner Intern
With tracking dogs increasingly used in police searches, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) is seeking to import 16 more canines to boost its complement of four-footed detectives.
The dogs should be here by September and will be cross-trained to detect cadavers, narcotics, and ammunition.
Tracking dogs have been particularly useful in two high-profile criminal cases: the disappearance of visually impaired university student Jasmine Deen and the shooting of four policemen during an operation in Horizon Park two weeks ago. Two of the cops died.
Specialist dogs like Gunner and Riffle, which operate out of the JCF’s Canine Division, undergo hours of intense training daily to hone their skills in locating missing persons.
They have been in the search for Deen, a visually impaired University of the West Indies student, who vanished on the night of February 27 after being picked up in a taxi. Two persons of interest in the case have since been charged.
Though the dogs did not succeed in finding Deen, the operation was still considered successful as it eliminated sites in Bull Bay, St Andrew, where she lived.
“Based on the skills of these dogs, Deen was not in the areas where the search was conducted,” said Inspector Gregory Ottar, chief trainer at the Canine Division at the JCF, adding that cadaver dogs were used on one of the operations.
CAPABLE OF TRACKING
“The dogs are capable of tracking. They are very good at it; they spend hours in training.”
Ottar said that the dogs scented clothing belonging to Deen before engaging in the search operation.
“Each person has a particular body odour. As long as we get a piece of the person’s clothing, the dog is able to sniff and retain that odour for the duration of the tracking,” said Ottar.
The dogs are fitted with a harness at the start of the tracking operation before being taken to the area under investigation. The dogs are placed in a sitting position and given clothing belonging to the missing person.
The canine trainer said that the dogs had the capability of tracking Deen into vegetation without losing the scent.
Ottar emphasised that search operations were most effective within 24 hours of a person’s disappearance as natural elements may compromise critical evidence.
“If there is no rain or dew, the dog will be able to track the scent,” he pointed out, adding that the heat could also cause evidence to disappear.
Gunner’s and Riffle’s most recent operation was on the crime scene of the two police officers who were killed in Horizon Park, Spanish Town, on June 12. The dogs were able to detect the escape path of Damion Hamilton, the suspect who was responsible for the grisly killings.
Hamilton was killed by the police later that day.