North Yorkshire Police’s Dog Section have asked their dedicated Twitter followers to come up with a name for their new trainee search dog.
Police Dog (PD) Jake, a cocker spaniel, was named by Rachel Baxter from Tadcaster whose suggestion received the most votes in an online Twitter poll last month.
Rachel and her 15-week-old daughter, Daisy, met up with 12-month-old Jake at Tadcaster Police Station and a few of his canine colleagues, including the force’s youngest recruit, 10-week-old PD Patto and seasoned professional, PD Rambo.
PD Rambo’s handler, PC Scott Nixon, set up the Dog Section’s Twitter account in November 2012 and already has more than 2,000 followers.
PD Rambo’s handler, PC Scott Nixon said:
Our police dogs are hugely popular and people are genuinely interested in what they do and how they help keep our communities safe. They are a great link and ice-breaker with members of the public and our Twitter feed gives us a quick and simple channel for two-way engagement. It seemed fitting that when we wanted a name for our latest recruit, we would ask our followers.
Rachel and baby Daisy met PD Jake for the first time last week. She explained how Jake got his name:
I love dogs and but unfortunately can’t have any at home. I’m an avid tweeter and follow lots of specialist dog teams on Twitter, but have a special interest in the work of police dogs.
When I was expecting Daisy, Jake was one of the names we’d thought of for a baby boy. So with the name now going spare, when the competition to name NYP’s pooch came up, Jake was the obvious choice! It was great for us to meet him person.
The competition to name PD Jake resulted in more than 100 suggestions, including Fenton, Jarvis, Elvis and Snowy. Jake and Jarvis were the two finalists, with Jake receiving 195 votes and Jarvis 128 votes.
To keep track of our canine crime-fighters on Twitter, follow @NYPDogSection
Read the Storify compilation of tweets which led to PD Jake being named
http://storify.com/NYorksPolice/namethenypdoggy
