New South Wales police are investigating whether engine failure led to a police car’s air conditioning failing and the subsequent death of two police dogs inside a special “dog pod”.
The German shepherds Xtra and Soldier were found dead inside the police vehicle by their handler on Thursday at about 12.30pm.
The dogs had been inside an air-conditioned pod at the back of a specially designed vehicle as their handler attended a development day in southern Sydney.
The officer left the dogs in the vehicle at 10.30am to attend a lecture 300 metres away and when he returned to check on them two hours later the German shepherds were dead.
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NSW police said on Friday they believed an engine failure led to the air conditioning turning off inside the dog pod. An alarm was triggered but the handler didn’t hear it.
“Unfortunately there was an alarm that goes off, it did go off … but when police went down there it was too late,” the assistant commissioner Stephen Hegarty told reporters.
“The primary cooling source would be the air conditioner, unfortunately when we returned to the motor vehicle it had ceased [running], which meant the air conditioner ceased as well.”
The “state of the art” cooling pod features were introduced in 2023. The temperature reached 27C in Lucas Heights on Thursday.
There is no protocol stipulating how often dogs are checked inside the pods. Police did not believe the car ran out of fuel.
“Those dogs can be in the rear of the car at night-time for long periods of time, so it’s not unusual and [not] against any … processes or training we’ve given the officers,” Hegarty said.
Changes have been implemented while the investigation was under way, the force said. They include increased use of kennelling and more frequent inspections of dogs kept in cooling pods.
The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, said she was “confident” there was no human error involved.
“They were in specialist-designed pods,” she said. “I’m confident there had been no human error and the vehicle has been towed for examination to check for any mechanical, technical and engineering issues.”
Webb earlier on Friday told ABC radio the dogs were “two valuable members of our organisation”.
“The thoughts of the whole police family are with them. We owe it to PD Xtra and DD Soldier to conduct a thorough investigation.”
The dogs’ handler was devastated, the commissioner told reporters on Friday.
“He had the very difficult task of going home yesterday afternoon to inform his wife and his two children about the passing of the two dogs because the two dogs … reside with the family,” she said. “They are part of that family [and] with the officer 24/7.”
Xtra had been with NSW police since 2018. Soldier was 15 months old and started working with the force in February 2024 for training and development.
A memorial will be held for the dogs at a later date and they be added to the police wall of remembrance.
