BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – A K-9 unit from Indianapolis will come to the Benton County Sheriff’s Office to help find electronic devices used for criminal activity.
K-9 units similar to this one have been trained to track crimes against children, like child pornography, on cell phones, SD cards and other devices, but can track down any device for any crime, said Lieutenant Michael Clark.
“In the world of technology that we live in, our detectives are almost always serving search warrants on cell phones and other data related devices,” Clark said. “They can be used for all sorts of other crimes, whether you’re looking for cell phones, looking for some of these other devices that may have been hidden or may just be set inside a house and you don’t know where they are.”
These K-9 units are trained to find chemicals consistently found in most storage devices, Clark said.
The sheriff’s office’s new dog will be assigned to one deputy, who will pick it up before receiving an extensive training course to adapt to the dog.
While the K-9 will be working with only one deputy, it will be available for other departments who might need help with certain cases where they would need to locate electronic storage devices.
