Skip to content

The four-legged friends busting police work stress

Joan Cummins
BBC Midlands Today
BBC A woman and two men are walking down a path towards the camera. Behind them is the warwickshire police building. The woman, on the left, is in a white police shirt and is walking a black springer spaniel on a lead. The man in the middle is in all black with a bum bag around his waist. He is walking a black and white Newfoundland. On the right, the other man is wearing a white shirt with black tie and is walking a white golden retriever BBC
Vesta, Bear and Freya are all OK9 dogs at Warwickshire Police

Working as a police call handler can involve dealing with stressful and upsetting situations, which is why a police force has brought in the help of some furry friends.

Warwickshire Police now has visits by four wellbeing and trauma support dogs from Oscar Kilo 9, or OK9 - a national network within policing.

The animals visit staff, particularly after major incidents, to help boost their mood and bring down stress.

"You've got a lot of negative in here, haven't you? Everything is just quite negative, and then you've got beautiful Freya who comes in and brings you back down to Earth," said call handler Becky Richardson.

All of the dogs are trained to deal with a good fussing as well as noise.

Their handlers are mental health champions at the force.

One of the dogs, Bear, is owned by his handler PC Danny Boxx - who is one of Warwickshire's mental health triage officers.

A black and white Newfoundland is being stroked by a police call handler who is sitting at a desk in front of a computer. The dog has a harness on that reads "Ok 9" and he is being held on a lead by a man
Bear is owned by mental health triage officer, PC Danny Boxx

"I work around the digital forensics, working mainly with the child abuse investigation team… it's a horrible job to do, but having the dogs in work just breaks it up a little bit," PC Boxx said.

"He's my pet, I take him home every night, aren't I lucky?"

There are now 150 OK9-accredited dogs across the country who can be called upon to support staff after a major incident.

A white golden retriever sitting on the floor of an office being stroked. She has a harness on that reads OK 9
Golden retriever Freya brings smiles to faces in the force

It is not only the call handlers that the dogs are helping - they also visit response officers.

"We're going to horrific scenes, and sometimes we need to decompress," said PC Gaz Starskey.

"A four-legged furry friend is something I rely on in my own life, and when you've got one at work as well it sort of helps the process."

Insp Steve Webb told the BBC that having the dogs "lifted" the room.

"We use the dogs as a vessel to get people to open up, so when they start having those interactions with the dogs we can just jump in with some simple questions about how they're doing, see what's going on," he said.

"Actually, it's a way of opening up and getting that early support."

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

More on this story
Related internet links