If Freddie had been around in 1984, the chances are the IRA would never have blown up the Grand hotel.

Freddie is an English springer spaniel who likes nothing more than to sniff out explosives for Sussex Police.

His tail wags two-to-the-dozen as he darts round rooms, sniffing in every corner.

There are no biscuits or doggy chocs at the end of each job for Freddie but his handler, PC Nick Baldwin-Charles, treats him to playtime with a ball or a rope to tug.

They are part of the record £3.7 million security operation for next week's Labour Party conference in Brighton.

Sniffer dogs were used in 1984 but the checking before a party political conference in Brighton was nowhere near as thorough.

The IRA bomb, which killed five and injured 30, was hidden behind a bath panel and it is inconceivable a terrorist could sneak anything similar inside the secure site for next week's conference.

The security exercise, Operation Otter, is the most expensive and largest ever mounted in the city and is making the conference area, known as the Island Site, as tight as a drum.

Police know there is nothing they can do to stop the fanatical and determined suicide bomber and they realise a bombing anywhere in the city would be considered a coup for the likes of Al Qaeda.

But what they can be confident about is that Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Cabinet, MPs, Labour Party members and visitors will be as safe and secure as possible.

The Argus spent a morning trailing search teams as they sniffed their way through hotels, the Brighton Centre and down drains in surrounding streets.

Freddie and his handler were checking rooms at the Hilton Metropole Hotel with another handler, PC Steve Williams and spaniel Nash who will be retiring after Otter.

The dogs work 40 minutes at a time with 20-minute breaks to allow their noses to recover from "smelling blindness" or too much sniffing.

Dogs from neighbouring forces have been brought in to provide 24-hour cover during the conference.

The dogs are followed in each room by "rummage" crews, teams of officers who check by hand and sight every cupboard, mattress, fixture and fitting.

Electronic detectors "sniff" the air for any explosives the dogs may have missed.

Inspector Jason Hazzard, of Sussex Police, said each room search takes 30 minutes or more and all Island Site hotels and the Brighton Centre will have been combed by the time the area is declared "sterile" this weekend.

Every stick of furniture, piece of boarding, curtain, political sign, item of electrical equipment, microphone and speaker arriving at the Brighton Centre will have been examined before it is allowed inside.

Items too large to fit through a scanner are checked by a hand-held mobile scanner which picks up "junctions" or anything with switches, wires or timers.

Just yards from the entrance specialist search teams climb down manholes in roads to check sewers.

They are examining every piece of street furniture including telephone exchange boxes.

Tell-tale stickers can be seen on traffic lights to show that police have searched inside the red, amber and green light boxes.

Nothing is taken for granted.

More than 1,000 police have been assigned to Otter and they include armed patrol officers on the streets and marksmen on rooftops.

An air-exclusion zone will be established over the area during the week and the military will be providing an air and sea defence capability, although details are being kept secret.

Disruptions to motorists and pedestrians have already begun.

Argus photographer Liz Finlayson was stopped and searched twice before reaching the Island Site.

Vans, lorries and cars are being stopped along the seafront by search police.

Traffic jams are expected at times and there will be considerable inconvenience to visitors, residents and businesses.

But as one officer at the scene put it: "If we ran scared and cancelled conferences like this then the terrorists will have won.

"We've got to carry on."

Friday, September 23, 2005