QPS old dog learns new tricks as currency canine
A QUEENSLAND drug detection dog has turned her nose to a new pursuit, in a first for the state’s police service.
FLIPA the black labrador has a $100,000 nose.
As the Queensland police dog squad’s first currency detection dog, she has sniffed out everything from thousands of dollars of hidden cash to gold bullion, drugs and firearms.
And now she is acting as a mentor for younger dogs as she heads into retirement age.
Flipa’s handler, Brisbane Dog Squad sergeant Darren Breuer, said the nine-year-old had spent most of her career as a drug detection dog, before becoming the police service’s first currency detection dog only recently due to a growing need.
He said QPS was calling on Australian Federal Police currency detection dogs up to 60 times a year across the state to help find tainted cash, so it made sense to train its own.
The dog squad already had trained drugs, firearms, explosives, cadaver, cannabis and blood detecting dogs, as well as the more well-known tracking dogs which were usually a shepherd breed.
Now there are two other drug-turned-cash-detection dogs following in Flipa’s footsteps.
Quid, a five-year-old black labrador, had money odour added to his olfactory repertoire not long after Flipa did last year, while chocolate lab Gizmo, 5, joined the ranks about a month ago.
Sgt Breuer said all of the currency detection dogs also continued to work as drug detection dogs, and would likely also be trained in firearm detection instead of having separately trained canines for those items.
“Flipa has actually already found firearms on a number of occasions,” he said.
“She is not trained in them, but what do you do when you’re sitting around smoking drugs?
“You’re showing off your guns and doing gangster photos, so you’re putting drug odour all over the gun too.
“Odour moves around really easily. That’s why we tell the police officers searching houses not to touch anything, as they can move it around.”
Flipa — daughter of the late police dog Asko — has big paws to fill.
She had only been trained in money detection for a month when she sniffed out a hidden $100,000 in cash and $100,000 in gold bullion hidden in a Brisbane house after regular police officers failed to find anything.
“We went to an acreage property that had been searched previously,” Sgt Breuer said.
“Information came to light that we’d missed a number of items. On deploying Flipa, she actually found a hidden safe behind a fake wall hidden in a concrete slab.
“We pulled the wall out, found the slab and it had about $100,000 in cash and another $100,000 in gold bullion. That was one of her first finds.”
As her reward, Flipa got to play tug of war with a small towel.
Sgt Breuer said in other searches in Brisbane, Ipswich and the Gold Coast, Flipa has also detected about $100,000 stashed inside pinball machines on separate occasions.
“Pinball machines are really hollow inside, plus they have keys,” he said.
“They were chock-a-block with about $100,000 both times.”
The money is usually either drug money or proceeds of other crimes, such as robberies or fraud.
Sgt Breuer said Flipa — whose birthday was September 29, which is Police Remembrance Day — also had another claim to fame as she headed into retirement.
Only Flipa and two of her brothers from their litter succeeded in becoming police dogs, while their sister joined the breeding program.
Fellow drug dog Flynn and firearm and explosives detection dog Fanta have already retired.
“Flipa is the only one still going hard,” he said.
“So it’s one for the girls.”
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