The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) is bringing on a specialty K-9 trained in sniffing out hidden electronics.
The dog, one of under 10 with this training in the region, will primarily be used for investigations into crimes against children, according to Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders.
“They are specifically trained to sniff out the chemicals that are made inside electronic devices, so that when people record inappropriate images of children and things like that and hide those devices, the dog can find it,” Sanders said during a Thurston County Board of Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
A K9 can search a room and pinpoint a hidden USB drive in minutes, a process that TCSO says would take human investigators hours of meticulous physical searching.
The dog and all associated TCSO training is funded through a grant from Defenders for Children, a nonprofit that acquires and trains electronic detection (ESD) K9s before pairing them with police agencies.
The ESD K9s help police locate evidence that helps to prosecute crimes against children cases, and additionally serve to deescalate search warrant scenes and comfort victims.
When not out in the field with a detective, the dog, a young black lab, will serve as an in-office dog for TCSO.
With so few other dogs with this training in the region, Sanders anticipates that TCSO’s ESD K9 will be deployed to neighboring jurisdictions to help other law enforcement agencies with their own crimes against children investigations.
The Defenders for Children grant covers the costs associated with those out of jurisdiction operations.
The Thurston County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a transfer of ownership on Tuesday, allowing Defenders for Children to give the ESD K9 to TCSO.
A TCSO detective will go meet the dog at a Defenders for Children site and undergo necessary training with the dog before bringing it back to Thurston County.
