Brussels police guard over listening dog for difficult interrogations (Brussels)
Since August 1, the Brussels local police has a new, special employee, the listening dog Lucky. The Golden Retriever will deliver during interrogations of traumatic events, among other things. The animal was presented on Monday at the Brussels city hall, in the presence of the mayors of Brussels and Ixelles, and Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden.
Source: BELGA
The project of the listening dog in 2021 came about during the internal ideas competition of the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles police, in which the staff could put forward innovative ideas. After months of training at the non-profit organization Os’mose, which trains assistance dogs, two-year-old Lucky started working for the Brussels police.
“He will help carry out a traumatic event with police,” the police said. “It concerns, for example, intra-family or sexual violence. Lucky’s gentle nature can make people feel more at ease more quickly during a stressful moment for them.”
The Police Victim Support Service will also be able to call on Lucky, just like the police personnel themselves, who sometimes have to deal with traumatic interventions. In addition, Lucky will also participate in events in the Brussels police zone, such as job fairs and school visits.
Both mayors, Philippe Close and Christos Doulkeridis, see nothing but benefits in the project: Lucky symbolizes this priority and will help to comfort payments.”
“When it comes to innovation in the police, people often think of technological innovation,” says Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden. “But the importance of new ideas that have nothing to do with may become the importance of technology. A project such as listening dog Lucky is the best example of this and gets all my support.”