14 DAY TRIAL // After a resounding success earlier this year during the Jared Fogle case, US police forces seem convinced that special K9 dogs trained to sniff out hidden hard-drive units are a must, and we may see more of them in the future.
Last August, a Labrador named Bear helped Indiana police forces search and discover a hidden hard drive in Jared Fogle's house, where investigators found video and photo evidence that led to a guilty plea from Fogle, a well-known public figure.
Fogle, most known as "the Subway Guy," pleaded guilty to child pornography and underage sex charges, but only after police used Bear in a second house search since no evidence was found during the first raid.
US Police adds their second hard-drive sniffing K9 dog
Now, after a $17,000 (€15,500) contribution from the Montgomery County Crimestoppers, Houston, Texas police officers have added the country's second hard-drive sniffing dog to their arsenal.
The dog, named Brody, is trained to sniff out special adhesives used only in the production of mass storage devices. Brody, affectionately nicknamed "porn dog," can sniff out hard drives, USB sticks, thumb drives, and tiny SD cards, hidden around a suspect's house.
"We have found that there have been storage devices in safes under the slab of somebody's home, they hide it very well,” said Ryan Gable, Montgomery County Precinct 3 Constable for KHOU.
More dogs are in training, will be distributed to police forces in the coming months
While surely neither Brody nor Bear will be glorified in the media like drug or bomb-sniffing dogs, US police forces hope to have a reliable weapon at their disposal in identifying storage devices hidden by suspects, especially in pedophilia cases.
Naturally, the dogs can be used in other investigations as well, anywhere where police need to track down hard drives that store various details about a suspect's activity, such as economic fraud cases, organized crime, and so on.
Other similar dogs are also currently in training, and police forces are waiting for them with open arms.