Like Roona, Banti and Jimmy, all the canines serving the district dog squads across the state will have more companions thanks to the state government’s decision to increase the number of dogs in the squads.
Realising the need for more canines, the state government has decided to purchase 54 dogs to help police solve crime and terror cases. There are currently 165 dogs in the state's dog squad.
As the number of crime cases is increasing and some dogs serving in the squads are getting old and dying due to ill health, the DG and IGP wrote to the state government to provide additional dogs. The superintendents of police of most districts, including Gulbarga, had written to their higher-ups appraising them of the need for additional dogs. The DG and IGP had in turn written to the under secretary, Home Department (expenditure).
The under secretary, in his reply to the DG and IGP, has stated that the state government has consented to purchase additional dogs. The dogs have been purchased and are being trained. They will be inducted into the dog squads in December. As per the order, Gulbarga district will get two dogs, Reeta and Rani.
While Reeta is being trained to solve crime cases, Rani is being given training to detect bombs and other explosives.
The Bangalore Urban district has 50 dogs and it will get 15 more. Mysore has seven dogs and will get three more.
The remaining districts will get a minimum of one and a maximum of four dogs. Davangere, Shimoga, Chamarajnagar, Hubli-Dharwad Urban, Koppal, Gadag, Dakshina Kannada, Kolar, Yadgir and Chikkaballapur have not applied for additional dogs, according to the order copy.