Meet the latest GMP duo tackling crime in and around the Wigan borough

PC Jessica Voiels is one of the three newest additions to join the TDU in February, however she is no stranger to the force, having worked as a response officer in Bury for five years. On day one of her course, PC Vioels was paired with PD Zeus, a German Shepherd who turns two years old in January.

The role of a dog handler can be challenging but was one that PC Voiels always wanted to do, she said: “I wanted to be a dog handler because, from being young, I’ve always loved dogs, I’ve got dogs at home; I’ve always had dogs, and then I always wanted to be a police officer.

“So, when I joined the police and I saw the work the dog handlers were doing and the jobs they go to, I just loved the work that the dogs themselves do as well.”

The pair are a force-wide resource but tend to cover the Wigan and Bolton regions of Greater Manchester if there is a spike in specific crimes.

There has been some interesting and rewarding jobs since working together, but PC Voiels’ most memorable so far was when Zeus located a machete and discarded clothing from a suspect.

She said: “There was an incident in Bolton, where a car had made off from some officers, the passenger that had run off had been detained around the corner somewhere, but he had a different top on, so he’d got rid of his jacket. There was a belief that he might have thrown some other items on the path of the way he’d gone.

“They asked me and Zeus to do a search in the area that he’d ran, and Zeus swiftly located a machete that he’d discarded in someone’s front garden, and the clothing that he’d thrown as he was running away.

"Balancing work life and home life is easy with him because he seems to know when he’s at work as soon as I get to work and open my boot, he starts barking. Whereas when I get him home, he seems very chilled, and he knows he’s at home now, I can play.”