Police dogs can detect technology

Two British police dogs have become the first outside the US to be trained in catching terrorists, paedophiles and fraudsters.

Devon and Cornwall Police and Dorset Police have trained two canines to detect digital storage devices, such as USB sticks, SD cards and hard drives.

Tweed, a 19-month-old springer spaniel, and Rob, a 20-month-old black labrador, have already been assisting operations across the UK.

Chief Superintendent Jim Nye, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: “This is a historic step for policing in the UK.

“These dogs will give the police a new way to fight the threat of terrorism, paedophiles and fraudsters.

“Tweed and Rob have been used by police at crime scenes and executions of warrants, not just within Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, but across the whole UK.

“The dogs have been used to sniff out data devices such as mobile devices, USB sticks, SD cards, hard drives and computers.”

The force launched a pilot scheme last year after police dog instructor PC Graham Attwood discovered the first digital storage detection dogs were trained by the Connecticut State Police Department.

PC Attwood said: “Myself and members of the alliance dog school initially handled and trained Tweed and Rob, mainly in our own time, as we were committed to our usual daily duties of training the force’s other operational police dogs.

“The majority of the dogs we have in the force either come from our puppy breeding scheme or are gift or rescue dogs, but this was a unique challenge for us so we identified and purchased Tweed and Rob last December when they were around 15 months old, and embarked on this journey with them.”

Tweed.