Electronic Detection Dogs Help Law Enforcement Tackle Crimes
More law enforcement agencies are using dogs who can detect small electronic devices that can be used to hide criminal materials. We’re talking items like cell phones, hard drives, thumb drives, and flash memory cards.
The canine officers are known as electronic storage detection (ESD) K9s. They are trained to find the devices by smelling the distinctive odor of a chemical that manufacturers use on electronic devices to prevent moisture and overheating.
At the federal level, the U.S. Secret Service’s National Computer Forensics Institute (NCFI) in Hoover, Alabama, runs an intense ESD training program, with the canine officers eventually sent to police departments in all 50 states.
These dogs can detect devices when law enforcement has missed them, and they involve all sorts of cases from child sex crimes to murder to money laundering.
“You have to find the electronic devices in order to search those electronic devices,” said NFCI Special Agent in Charge Donald Witham.
Training Protocol
It takes about five months to train a dog, with the dogs being rewarded with food when they find the storage devices. American and English Labradors are the prime breeds due to their like of food rewards.
“All the dogs are trained on food rewards. That means the only time they eat is when they work,” said Todd Jordan, owner of Jordan Detection K9. “It keeps them motivated. It keeps them healthy. They are almost like athletes, eating small meals daily.”
Handlers also train with the dogs daily, with the personality of the dog matched to the handler’s personality.
Most dogs in the program were previously trained to assist people with disabilities. Dogs and handlers must pass an annual certification and the dogs typically work until about age 12.
NCFI trained more than 5,200 students in 2024 and hopes to train more than 8,000 in 2028.
Helping Law Enforcement Nationwide
Among the departments using an electronic detection dog is the Maine State Police.
“Any case really that there’s an electronic component that they’re looking for, can’t find, or may be hidden, as long as that electronic component is capable of storing data, he will alert to that and indicate where that device is,” said Maine State Police Detective Corporal Chris Crawford of the force’s dog, Marley.
And a labrador retriever named Rosco won the 2024 Uniformed Service K-9 Award for Canine Excellence.
Rosco works in the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office in Oklahoma as part of the Internet Crimes Against Children unit. The dog is said to find “even the most miniature hidden cameras, cell phones, flash drives, and memory cards that investigators might miss.”