At just 11 weeks old she may appear cute and cuddly, but in about a year’s time Harper will be sniffing out crime and chasing down bad guys.

The sable German shepherd has been introduced to the Surrey and Sussex Police teams as a general purpose dog.

It will be her job to track, chase and detain suspects, search for stolen property and missing people, and assist public order units with crowd control.

The forces plan to send Harper to a handler in December, before running her through her paces on a full training course in January.

Surrey Police kennel master Emma Coles said: "Harper is still very young and she's certainly keeping her foster family on their toes.

"General purpose dogs are invaluable in the way officers work to fight crime.

“They are part of a team, and they support their handlers as much as their handlers support them. Without a police dog, officers may not be able to find a missing person or track down a wanted criminal."

Harper was one of a litter of four puppies – Hero-Diesel, Hector and Hope – who will all go through the same training process ahead of life as a general purpose police dog.

The task of naming the litter fell to a group of school children who were visited by Harper and kennel master Emma Coles.

Kerri Martin, of City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead Park, Surrey, explained: "We were looking through Twitter and noticed that one of the police dogs was having puppies, so we asked if we could see one. Much to our surprise, we not only had a visit from Harper, but we were also invited to name her.

"We're all so grateful for the visit and we hope Harper goes on to catch a lot of criminals."

Hero-Diesel was named after the police dog that lost its life in the Paris terrorist attacks, Hope was named by Surrey Police internally and Hector was named by a woman who offered to provide a substantial donation to charity to name the puppy after her husband.