Are police dogs likely to be of any use in large towns? This question is being asked following the announcement that the Metropolitan police are to receive canine assistance. Expert opinion in London is divided.
Every schoolboy knows that Sexton Blake owed much of his success to his faithful bloodhound; and no reader of detective fiction needs to be reminded that it is the distinguished amateur in crime detection who sets the pace and teaches the regular police their business. It is not surprising, therefore, that Sexton Blake's example is to be followed at last.
Certain retired Scotland Yard officials have commented adversely on the proposals..Ex-Chief Constable Wensley is one who thinks that dogs will be useful in country districts but not in congested London where they would not be able to follow a scent. Tracking dogs need the open country for the exercise of their peculiar ability. Come to think of it, most of Sexton Blake's sensational triumphs were achieved in rural circumstances or at any rate in a town vastly different from the densely populated, traffic-ridden London of to-day.
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