Meet Xena and Max - who have now joined a specialist police dog team.

The pair are now fully fledged members of the Victim Recovery and Crime Scene team for the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Dog Unit and are now ready to be deployed to assist colleagues across the three counties.

The duo are two-year-old English Springer Spaniels and their handlers recently qualified after successfully completing their victim recovery, crime scene Investigation and drowned victim detection dog course.

Jackie Sebire from Herts police said: "Congratulations to the handlers and their dogs.

"This is a first for Beds, Cambs and Herts and will be of real benefit across the forces adding to our vast areas of specialism within the unit already," adding: "The Dog Unit provide vital support across the tri-force in so many areas and it is fantastic to see the development of the team in this area."

The dogs work within the disciplines of victim recovery, forensic search (CSI) and drowned victim recovery and could assist in a wide range of cases such as murders, serious assaults, serious sexual offences and missing persons.

They are also trained to locate bodies, body parts, bodily fluids and bodies in water.