JAMAICAN police are planning to start a programme to train their own cadaver sniffing dogs to boost their investigating capabilities.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Les Green said police was looking to start the programme following the completion of an operation in Tivoli Gardens in search of bodies.

Police during their search were aided by a search team and sniffer dogs from the United States.

"The operation using the sniffer dogs was successful and we believe that starting a programme to train our own sniffer dogs would only help to boost the local authorities capability," Green told the Observer.

Green said the US search team that spent two weeks in Jamaica was called on to aid police following the discovery of a body buried in a shallow grave in the West Kingston community on June 9.

Detectives from the Major Investigation Task Force said the body, which was also found near a section of the community known as Rasta City, was in a kneeling position, with hands and feet bound and mouth gagged.

Police said the person appeared to have been shot.

Police has since carried out several other searches and have found a number of shallow graves and other items resembling bones but tests have returned negative findings