Dog helps catch criminals by sniffing out technology

A sniffer dog has been nominated for a national award for his work sniffing out digital devices.

Tweed, who works for Devon & Cornwall Police, is trained to help police catch paedophiles, terrorists and fraudsters by detecting hidden digital storage technology.

Handler PC Martin King, who looks after two digital detection dogs, has been involved in 1,209 searches.

He said Tweed had found numerous devices hidden in drains and another that was buried underground with two zip lock bags around it. His work has also led to the conviction of a terrorist.

PC King added: "The dog is trained to find anything that stores data.

"When you think about the amount of crimes that are cyber linked at the moment, it's endless really.

"The dogs work it out themselves, they are really switched on and it only takes six weeks to train this.

"When she freezes on something, she lets me know that as the indication to say it is something we are interested in.

"We are all part of a team, this is just another resource for a more thorough search because you can very rarely defeat the dog's nose."

Speaking about the nomination for an award for the Kennel Club Hero Dug Awards at Crufts, he continued: "There's five dogs who have been nominated as finalists from across the country.

"In my eyes they are all winners but Tweed is the biggest winner of them all and I am very biased. Their nose work is incredible and it still astounds me now."

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