Memory Sniffing Dogs Take a “BYTE” Out of Crime!

The New Use of Canines in Law Enforcement

Created in the 1980’s by Saatchi & Saatchi for the Ad Council of the National Crime Prevention Council, McGruff the Crime Dog was a cartoon used to build crime awareness among children. McGruff’s motto was to “take a bite out of crime.” His message would be relayed through educational commercials, songs, booklets and videos about drugs, bullying, safety, identity theft, and the importance of education.

On the small screen, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin chronicled the stories of a man and his dog reestablishing order in the Wild West. But patrolling pooches are not just on the small screen. Jerry Lee was a drug-sniffing hound that worked alongside James Belushi, a mean spirited detective with a contract on his life, in the film K-9. Not to be outdone, Tom Hanks and his police pooch, Hooch, work together to solve a murder, money-laundering operation, police corruption, and drug-smuggling ring in Turner and Hooch. In both feature films, the reluctant Homo sapiens partner with their new canine companions and eventually become friends.

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 also for federal agencies, state and local police departments throughout New England, and K9 teams inforeign countries including Greece and Chile. In 1986 the Connecticut State Police K9 Unit trained the world’s first accelerant detection dog, K9 “Mattie”, a Connecticut State Police black Labrador that assisted in fire investigations throughout New England. The Connecticut State Police K9 Unit has trained dogs in bomb, narcotic, bloodhounds, and cadaver/human remains detection, along with search and rescue recovery.

They now have a new tool in the toolbox called Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) dogs. These newly trained pups search for hidden cell phones and computers through the scent of a certain chemical compound inside the devices. The computer dogs are capable of alerting handlers to and locating, any kind of electronic storage device including but not limited to DVDs, USB drives, hard drives, SD cards, and micro SD cards.

Dr. Jack Hubbal, a chemist at the Connecticut State Police Forensic Lab, is credited with isolating a chemical compound that surrounds the memory board in all phones and computers. Another compound was discovered on DVDs, CDs and floppy disks and was singled out.

In February 2016, a new class of K9’s spent five weeks “imprinting” the scents at the Connecticut academy. A month later, officers from Alaska, Missouri, Virginia, Massachusetts, and the FBI began training with their new partners. On April 15, 2016 this second class of specialized K9 teams graduated in Connecticut and joined only a handful of other ESD K9’s already on patrol across the nation.

Dogs are no longer just the slobbery and energetic mutts depicted in movies that tear houses apart that chew on the furniture. How soon before “Winnie”, a recent ESD K9 graduate, is portrayed in a movie finding the secret plans to blow up the world on a hidden SD card at the last minute, saving everyone from annihilation?

If McGruff makes a commercial today, his new motto should be “take a byte out of crime!”