15 September, 2017
British police have drafted in a pair of FBI-trained cyber dogs to help bring pedophiles to justice.
Tweed, a 19-month-old springer spaniel, and Rob, a 20-month-old black labrador, are understood to be the first digital detection dogs outside the US.
Ch Supt Jim Nye, commander for the alliance operations department that works across the two forces, said: "These dogs will give the police a new way to fight the threat of terrorism, paedophiles and fraudsters".
In 2015, dog instructor PC Graham Attwood began to research whether dogs could be used effectively in this way and worked with his counterparts in CT, who use digital detection dogs.
Both dogs received specialist training in the United States on how to detect a chemical used to cool digital memory chips.
For more on the "digital dogs" and other stories from across Devon and Cornwall.
He said the dogs were bought specifically for the project, and training them was a "unique challenge", but he had already seen "fantastic results". While executing one warrant, Tweed sniffed out what looked like a Coke can.
The dogs are also a bit like freelance mercenaries, as as well as helping out in Devon and Cornwall they've been called in to assist detect criminal activity in Essex, South Wales and North Yorkshire, helping in the carrying out of over 50 search warrants where digital material and hidden mobile phones were being hunted. On closer inspection, officers found that the can was instead a can-shaped money box, which had been used to hide a number of SD cards.
BRIT cops are using specialist Federal Bureau of Investigation trained dogs that can "sniff out" paedophiles' computers in the battle against sick pervs.
The dogs are based with Dorset Police and Devon & Cornwall Police, and live at home with their new full-time handlers PC Martin King and PC Jill Curnow.
