Sniffer dog joins Bulwell police for drug crackdown operation

The day of action was organised by the Bulwell neighbourhood policing team in response to reports of drug offending in the area.

Stop-and-searches were carried out by a mixture of plain clothed and uniformed officers during patrols of different parts of the town centre.

As well as spotting suspicious behaviour with their own eyes, officers were also pulled to a number of suspects by the sniffer dog – and its nose.

One of the main purposes of the operation was to provide a visible presence on the streets to help deter drug offending, which is a policing priority for the area.

While no drugs were seized, the operation succeeded on that front with multiple social media messages being seen warning Bulwell was ‘swimming with police’ and to ‘stay away’.

Following the day of action on November 23, plans are now being drawn up to repeat the operation, with residents told to expect to see the sniffer dog out with them more often.

Inspector Paul Ferguson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Cracking down on drug offending, including dealing, is a key policing priority for us, as we fully appreciate how much damage this can cause.

“We don’t want to see any of this type of activity on our streets, which is precisely why days of action and targeted operations like this are so important.

“While no drugs were seized on this occasion, the main purpose of this was to provide that visible police presence on the streets to stop people from dealing drugs in our communities.

“This was certainly successful on that front, with our officers seeing multiple messages on social media of people warning others to stay away from Bulwell due to police being in the area.

“It was great to also receive some positive feedback from the public about the operation taking place, so we will definitely look to repeat it again in the near future.

“We treat all reports we receive of drug activity extremely seriously and do a lot of work, including regular patrols of hot-spot areas, to tackle this issue.

“That will continue going forward and the public can help us take positive action by reporting any drug activity in their community.”