Hi-tech dogs sniff out criminal lairs

Specialist technology-detection dogs are discovering concealed electronic storage devices that may otherwise have been missed in criminal investigations.

Georgia with Senior Constable Scott Lewis. Picture: Liam Kidston

Specialist technology-detection dogs are discovering concealed electronic storage devices that may otherwise have been missed in child abuse, counter-terrorism, fraud and drug investigations.

Three dogs capable of detecting the scent of microSD cards, USBs and SIM cards have found more than 120 devices since the Australian Federal Police started using them last year.

The AFP says the program, set to be expanded with millions of dollars of extra funding in last week’s federal budget, was launched after a successful trial involving a labrador named Georgia.

“Even our trainers involved in dog training for 20-plus years were sceptical,” Superintendent Simon Henry, head of AFP canine operations, said.

“But Georgia was the proof of the project, a ­really influential dog in terms of development of the capability.

“Because of her, we were able to prove the concept and roll it out to three dogs, and now over the next few years grow that program exponentially.”

The tech dogs are particularly useful in child abuse cases where offenders can keep hundreds of thousands of images in concealed electronic storage devices.

Superintendent Henry said during a recent child exploitation raid, Brisbane-based Georgia had discovered a stash of mobile phones in a void beneath a set of drawers that had already been searched.

The dogs take several months to train and are expected to work for about six years before retiring.

“Dogs’ ability to detect scents is at least 10,000 times better than our own,” Superintendent Henry said.

“They perceive the whole world differently because of that sense of smell.

“Even to us, we find it ­astounding because you don’t ­intuitively think that your phone or a thumb drive has a smell to it. But to Georgia, there’s a signature to those items and she can find them.

“We’re talking about devices the size of your fingernail, that can easily be overlooked and easily be deliberately hidden.”

Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said on Tuesday that $5.7m in the budget would increase the number of tech dogs to at least 12, to be deployed across the country.

Two other tech dogs are ­currently based in Sydney and Canberra.

The AFP is the first Australian police force with a team of the dogs, joining others that are trained to detect explosives, firearms, drugs and cash.

Senior Constable Scott Lewis, two-year-old Georgia’s handler, said she had discovered items buried outside despite the odour from storage devices being hard to detect.

“Even other handlers that have run dogs for years will watch her work and just go ‘Wow, she’s next level’,” he said.