Dog helps sniff out drugs in police operation

Police have carried out a week of concerted action in a Devon seaside town to try to deal with drug problems and antisocial behaviour.

Extra resources were brought in to assist with the operation in Torquay, said Devon and Cornwall Police.

The BBC joined officers as they walked through the town centre with sniffer dog Ken last week.

Police undertook searches in the streets and acted on intelligence as they carried out raids elsewhere.

During the patrol, Ken signalled to his handler PC Sara Fleming when he sniffed out drugs.

Police searched a woman and said they found a quantity of heroin.

PC Fleming said: "I let him [Ken] dictate what is going on so if he goes by it, we go by it.

"But he then put his nose under the little gap at the bottom [of a bus shelter] and then he's given me a freeze, which is his indication which tells me there is something in there that he's trained to detect."

Police were also dispersing people in the town if their behaviour was unsuitable.

Officers approached a group of people in Castle Circus - including one they believe had a "crack pipe" - used for smoking crack cocaine.

PC Jason Keeping said police could not arrest people for having paraphernalia, but he added: "It is another way of using a PSPO [Public Spaces Protection Order] that we can disperse them from the area."

Devon and Cornwall Police said it regularly carried out enforcement work but it mixed up times and resources to keep perpetrators guessing.

Ch Insp Miranda Pusey, who looks after local policing in south Devon, said: "We've been listening to our communities, doing lots of engagement events to understand what is the fear around going into the town centre.

"This [operation] has enabled me to bring in other resources from the organisation to assist and complement both my neighbourhood and patrol teams and bringing in that additional support to help them."