Meet the four legged friends who help to keep the county safe.
The Citizen has been introduced to some of the most handsome members of Gloucestershire's police teams - and their handlers - to learn a bit more about the canine division.
They are part of the tri-county police dog section the constabulary's operations unit near Cheltenham.
Sergeant Geoff Blindell, who runs the Gloucestershire section of the squad, describes the dogs as being 'worth their weight in gold'.
His furry companion Bear, a German shepherd general purpose dog, has helped hundreds of people over the years, whether it be tracking missing people, helping to find stolen property or tracking down the criminals who make lives a misery.
"For me the proudest moment is when Bear does something that no other human or machine could," explained Sgt Blindell.
"Bear has helped find missing people when teams of officers couldn't locate them and for me that is the beauty of these animals.
"Their senses are so much stronger than those of humans and they are able to hear, see and smell things that we would not."
Bear is one of 14 German shepherds on the Gloucestershire dog squad.
Sgt Blindell is in charge of 13 handlers, all of whom have a general purpose dog under their watch and most of them have a tracking dog as well who are usually sourced from smaller breeds.
"It's so they can fit into the smaller spaces where people tend to hide drugs and cash," explained handler PC Janson Wong, who is responsible for police dogs Max and Marley.
"There isn't a particular breed that we look for when finding dogs to join the squad but there are certain traits we need to look out for."
According to Sgt Blindell, the number one thing to look out for when searching for potential police dogs is ball control.
"That dog will do anything for the chance to play with that ball and that is half the battle in training," he said.
"These dogs are an integral part of our county's policing and in a number of cases they have not only saved members of the public but also prevented officers from getting hurt."
