Police Using Dogs To Sniff Out Computer Memory

First time accepted submitter FriendlySolipsist points out a story about Rhode Island Police using a dog to find hidden hard drives. The recent arrival of golden Labrador Thoreau makes Rhode Island the second state in the nation to have a police dog trained to sniff out hard drives, thumb drives and other technological gadgets that could contain child pornography. Thoreau received 22 weeks of training in how to detect devices in exchange for food at the Connecticut State Police Training Academy. Given to the state police by the Connecticut State Police, the dog assisted in its first search warrant in June pinpointing a thumb drive containing child pornography hidden four layers deep in a tin box inside a metal cabinet. That discovery led the police to secure an arrest warrant, Yelle says. “If it has a memory card, he’ll sniff it out,” Detective Adam Houston, Thoreau’s handler, says.

Comments

Amazoing

[governorx]

I had no idea the contents of a physical drive changed its smell!

This is very intriguing!

Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

[Frosty Piss]

Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

Uh, yeah. Most judges rubber-stamp search warrants.

Also, does concealing a memory device now automatically imply child porn?

The cops get bolder every year, and people just go along.

Cop: "I asked him for his ID, and he went fishing in a pocket. IT COULD HAVE BEEN A GUN OR KNIFE, SO I SHOT HIM".

Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

[kesuki]

i guess if dogs can smell memory sneakernets into dictatorships to provide outside information is doomed. i wonder can they smell a blu-ray too? cause 25 GB is a lot of storage...

Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

[Anonymous Coward]

The dog is not being used to establish probable cause, it is being used to aid in the execution of a search warrant where probable cause has already been established.

Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

[TechyImmigrant]

>where probable cause has already been established.

Or where a suitably incriminating memory stick has been prepared just in case there isn't one inside the metal box

Lots of false positives ...

[PPH]

... on the child porn. But it creates 'probable cause' to hold someone and go through the rest of their personal belongings, car, house, etc.

Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

[SeaFox]

Also, does concealing a memory device now automatically imply child porn?

Where have you been the last ten years? Trying to conceal anything at all from a law enforcement officer implies you're up to something. Only criminals insist on privacy now, citizen!

useless.

[rogoshen1]

One step closer to 'thoughtcrime' ;(

Side note, there's a shortage of dogs capable of doing real work, like search and rescue. why waste good talent on this shit? I can't think of a reason this should ever be an issue.

Is the end game going to be that whenever going through customs all storage will be scanned and stored "just in case"? :(

Re:you need to be on the jury

[SuricouRaven]

It's not the dog that decides if the car contains drugs. It's the handler. If the handler wants to see a search carried out, the dog will find something suspicious.

Re:Any Memory?? what judge will go on just that?

[hooiberg]

Child pornography is the Digital Godwin. So if budget has to be made available, and ridicule from the thinking part of the world ensured, this is a valid argument.

Re:How do you defeat dogs?

[disposable60]

It's kinda remarkable how rarely Mythbusters bust a law-enforcement myth, or fail to bust an evasion myth.