Handler pays tribute after death of "partner and friend" PD Cairo

31 January 2024

A retired City of London Police officer has said an emotional goodbye to brave and heroic Police Dog Cairo.

PD Cairo died last month, just weeks after he retired from duty in December 2023.

Former PC Simon Ashton, who also retired in December after 30 years with the force, paid tribute to the German Shepherd, who he describes as “not only an amazing police dog but a partner and friend.”

Cairo was fiercely loyal and trusting, great with children and sick people, but was also an excellent thief taker, Simon said. “I got Cairo when he was 10 months old back in 2018, we then did our initial course in 2019, and he’s been with me ever since. It’s still a bit raw,” he added.

Cairo won a bravery award at the Guildhall in the City of London in 2019 after he caught a suspect despite having been hit by a car.

Simon said: “We both were new as a dog handling team on the streets. We’d had a call to Holborn where one of the office blocks had an intruder who’d been stopped by security and was acting strangely. When we turned up this person ran away. Unbeknown to myself at the time, he was high on LSD.

“Cairo gave chase and caught him, but due to the fact the guy was on drugs, he wasn’t subdued and he didn’t seem to feel pain. He attempted to thumb Cairo’s eyes out and kicked him, and then continued to run. When he ran across the road, Cairo gave chase and unfortunately got hit by a car. He went up in the air, and as he came down I was concerned. But he shook himself off, looked up, saw the guy was still running, ran after him and caught him.”

Cairo was also praised when he located a suspect who had carried out an aggravated burglary with an iron bar.

Simon explained: “The local units managed to catch two [of the suspects], but Cairo and myself, over two hours, tracked and searched, climbed over fences and ten-foot walls. The helicopter couldn’t find them but Cairo eventually found this guy hiding down a building well. So we captured the last one, and Cairo also found the iron bar that was used to hit the woman, which resulted in all of them being convicted for aggravated burglary. It was amazing. It was just one of loads of jobs that he did, but a really satisfying one.”

He added: “I think the work that police dogs do is underestimated. I refer to German Shepherds as a force multiplier as when I may well have been called to a call for help from armed officers who had conducted a stop but are now being attacked by an unarmed crowd, just turning up with the dog can disperse a crowd of 50 or 100.”