Enhancing Quality in Commercially Used Explosives Detection Dogs

Abstract

Explosives detection dog (EDD) teams are deployed at mass events such as concerts, annual general meetings of large listed companies or in air cargo security. However, outside of EU-regulated air cargo, there is no common quality standard for commercial EDD in Germany and many neighboring countries. While law enforcement agencies have access to experienced chemists and can conduct dog training with homemade explosives, small commercial security services do not have comparable capabilities and face additional legal hurdles. The DIN SPEC 77201 was developed within the project to fulfil the need for a generally accepted quality standard. A training workshop was developed and transferred from the academic sector to commercial partners in order to improve training opportunities with home-made explosives, providing new insights for training EDD teams with TATP, HMTD or training aids.