RUFF JUSTICE

Utah Police Now Have a Kiddie-Porn-Sniffing Dog

“I thought I was being punked, but it does work,” a prosecutor for the Department of Justice said of the cops’ special pups.

“Porn dog” doesn’t sound like a terribly appealing job at first, but pups with that title are breaking new ground for cops across the country.

According to a Facebook post from Utah’s Weber County police force on June 21, a new K-9 specializing in tracking down illegal and child pornography is the latest of a new type of trained hound to join police forces nationwide.

The one-year-old black lab—ironically named URL—has been specially trained to sniff out electronic storage devices such as zip drives, cell phones, SD cards, external hard drives, and tablets.

“We realize some of you may be skeptical and wonder how is this possible,” reads part of the Weber County police force’s post. “URL does not actually search for illegal materials, but rather his highly sensitive nose has been trained to detect the unique chemical compounds found in the certain electronic components.”

URL comes from the same Indiana-based trainer as Bear, the K-9 who played a key role in the arrest of Subway pitchman and child molester Jared Fogle. Though there were reportedly only about five dogs in the U.S. trained to sniff out electronic devices when the FBI raided Fogle’s Indiana home last July, police departments across the country are increasingly utilizing the trained pups to hunt down electronic media.

“I thought I was being punked, but it does work,” DOJ prosecutor Steven DeBrota told NBC News. “I became a believer. I think it's going to become a regular law enforcement technique.”

Experts say that the canine cops could be used not only to investigate child porn cases, but also in other electronics-related operations, including counterintelligence and counterterrorism probes.

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Peter Slattery

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