POLICE DOG IN COURT

Press, Volume C, Issue 29673, 17 November 1961, Page 14

POLICE DOG IN COURT

First Time In N.Z.

A police dog. Buck, was produced in the Supreme Court in Christchurch yesterday by its handler. Constable L. J. Petersen, during the hearing of a charge of housebreaking preferred against a young man. It was the first time that a police dog had ever been brought into the Supreme Court in Christchurch, and also the first time that it had occurred in New Zealand. In a recent case in Wellington evidence of a police dog’s having tracked an offender was accepted in the trial of an accused but the dog was not produced in court. Buck was brought into the courtroom on the application of the Crown Prosecutor (Mr P. T. Mahon), so that the jury could see the type of police dog which had tracked from the scene of the alleged housebreaking to a spot where the accused and another man had been accosted by a second police party, then making its way to the scene. Before asking that the dog be brought into court Mr Mahon had questioned Constable Petersen about the training which it had undergone. Constable Petersen said Buck had been trained to track all types of footwear. He had undergone training in all phases of police work, and had scored the most tracking successes of any police dog in New Zealand. Mr Mahon suggested that it was about time the dog was promoted to sergeant.