LONDON (Reuters) – Residents in the central English county of Derbyshire may just about be getting used to hearing their local police bark out commands in German. Derbyshire police have had to import trained German Sheperd (Alsatian) dogs from Germany because they believe dogs in England are no longer suited to police work. "When they come from Germany they have obviously only responded to German commands, but after a few months they are bilingual," Derbyshire Police spokeswoman Jill Walden said. It takes a few months before the German dogs get used to commands in English, so handlers must train them by giving the German order first followed by the English translation. The dogs are no longer considered aggressive enough for police work, like crowd control and keeping dangerous suspects contained, Walden said. "They are more likely to go and lick you to death than bite you, which is not really a deterrent."

(Reporting by Georgina Cooper, editing by Paul Casciato)