New partnership head out on paw-trol

Leicestershire Police has a new crime-fighting duo on paw-trol this Christmas.

PC Kier Wilson and his furry four-legged companion, police dog (PD) Nash, are the latest partnership in the force’s dog unit after recently passing their eight-week training programme.

Nash

The 16-month-old German Shepherd is now a fully-fledged general-purpose police dog – responsible for tracking offenders, helping to locate vulnerable people and protecting officers in potentially dangerous situations.

Following in the paw prints of his older brother three-year-old PD Jura, who is also part of the Leicestershire Police pack, PD Nash has already been able to put a lot of his training to use.

Since hitting the streets with PC Wilson on Saturday 10 December, the crime-fighting canine has attended a number of incidents and had success in tracking a suspect found hiding under a hedge, as well as preventing a burglar from running from officers.

And when not on shift PD Nash is settling very well into life at home with PC Wilson and his family.

Having worked for the force since 2009, it was always PC Wilson’s ambition to become a dog handler.

In April 2021 he was given the opportunity to make his dream a reality and for the first year of his career he was paired with PD Tia - before she retired in April of this year.

He said: “I have a passion and love for dogs and consider myself extremely lucky to do the job I do.

“I had a great first year with Tia and although we’ve only been together a few months the bond between myself and Nash is already incredible and continues to grow every day.

“It makes me very proud to see him putting into practise what we’ve been training extensively for these past couple of months and after a long shift it is great to be able to take him home with me and do all of the things other dog owners do with their family pet.”

Nash with PC Kier Wilson