Police Departments Are Training Dogs To Sniff Out Thumb Drives (cnet.com)

A CNET report provides some insight on an elite K-9 search class that trains dogs to sniff out electronics, including phones, hard drives and microSD cards smaller than your thumb. From the report: Only one out of every 50 dogs tested qualifies to become an electronic storage detection, or ESD, dog, says Kerry Halligan, a K-9 instructor with the Connecticut State Police. That's because it's a lot harder to detect the telltale chemical in electronics than it is to sniff out narcotics, bombs, fire accelerants or people, she says. But Labrador retrievers like Harley, with their long snouts and big muzzles, can pick up even the faintest olfactory clues. These tech-seeking dogs are helping law enforcement find child pornography stashed in hidden hard drives, uncover concealed phones, nab white-collar evidence kept on hard drives and track calls stored on SIM cards. The most famous case occurred in 2015, when a Labrador retriever named Bear found a hidden flash drive containing child pornography in the home of former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle. The district attorney called the discovery vital to Fogle's conviction.

Comments

Blind Tests Have Shown Dogs Don't Work

[Anonymous Coward]

X sniffing dogs mostly don't work. They're just probable cause on a leash. I'm not saying that dogs can't sniff some of this stuff. I'm saying most of the time, they're just used to get around the constitution by a zealous cop.

Re:In tests, drug dogs, handlers hit where cops th

[Ogive17]

I'm surprised this got a +5 interesting without any actual evidence of the study or even a link to an article.

I've been to a training academy for police dogs. I got to hide the contraband myself and the handlers were not present. All 3 dogs being trained that day had no problem locating the stash.

Can the handlers have an influence on the dog? Absolutely. That is likely poor training of the handler, though.

Here's a study and an article

[raymorris]

Here's an article:
http://bigthink.com/neurobonke...

About this similar study:
https://link.springer.com/arti...

I'm sure you can find more with about 60 seconds on Google.

Re:In tests, drug dogs, handlers hit where cops th

[Reziac]

Yes, the dogs will find actual stashes. But they'll also alert on nonexistent stashes, if they believe they should (especially if reward-trained -- then you get "offered" behavior). As the Springer link lays out: Handler expectations influence the behavior of trained dogs, and even when you =think= you're giving no cues, the dog will pick up on it.

[pro dog trainer here; doesn't surprise me in the least, especially with highly reactive breeds like German Shepherds.]