ESD Dogs - Page 1

Pretty cool stuff! These specialized sniffer dogs have been used in child porn cases recently, to find hidden laptops, etc.

They call them “ESD dogs,” a kind of K9 that can sniff out computers and cell phones.

These Electronic Storage Detection Labradors have been trained to search for hidden cell phones and computers through the scent of a chemical compounds inside the devices. The computer dogs are capable of alerting handlers to, and finding, any kind of electronic storage device including, but not limited to DVDs, USB drives, hard drives, SD cards, and micro SD cards.

The K9 computer teams have helped law enforcement search for and recover electronics that can provide evidence and information in criminal cases.

According to a State Police release, “Dr. Jack Hubbal, a chemist at the Forensic Lab, was able to isolate a chemical compound, triphenylphosphine oxide, which surrounds the memory board in all phones and computers. Another compound, hydroxycyclohexyl phenyl etone, was discovered on DVDs, CDs and floppy disks.”

After training the dogs to sniff out these chemical compounds, state police put two computer K9 teams out into the field in 2012. The first teams included State Police Detective George Jupin and K9 “Selma” and Rhode Island State Police Detective Adam Houston and K9 “Thoreau”.

On Friday, a second class of these specialized K9 teams will graduate and join computer crimes units across the nation.

The latest class of computer K9 teams started their training Feb. 1, at the Connecticut State Police K9 Unit. The computer dogs spent five weeks at the K9 Unit for the “imprintation“ stage of training, and on March 7, police officers from Anchorage, Alaska, St. Charles County, Mo., Franklin County, Va., a trooper from the Massachusetts State Police and a special agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigations began training with their new K9 partners.

All Connecticut State Police computer dogs come from Guiding Eyes for the Blind in New York.

Trooper First Class Kelly Grant said, “The Connecticut State Police K9 Unit is one of the premier police K9 training units in the country. The K9 Unit has developed and trained K9’s not only for the Connecticut State Police, but for the CT Department of Corrections, numerous CT local police departments, federal agencies, police departments throughout New England, and K9 teams for foreign countries to include Greece and Chile. In 1986 the Connecticut State Police K9 Unit trained the world’s first accelerant detection dog, K9 “Mattie”, a CSP black Labrador that assisted in fire investigations around New England. In addition, the Connecticut State Police K9 Unit has trained dogs in bomb, narcotic, bloodhounds, and cadaver/human remains detection, along with search and rescue recovery.”

 

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/State-police-train-more-computer-K9s-7243204.php

Very interesting...thanks for sharing that here, bee!

I never cease to be amazed at the things dogs are capable of doing for our benefit.

Thanks Hexe! The local news showed the graduating class... Yellow labs, but still cool. I owned a yellow lab back in my college days, so I can appreciate another breed that is other, than the wonderful, GSD!