Usually, we post urgent stories of human rights violations. Today, we have some very good news . . . unless you're a pedophile.
Police dogs in the Northeastern United States are being trained to sniff out child pornography as state police in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island fight back against a growing network of traffickers.
Incredibly smart canines, like Thoreau, a golden Labrador who trained at the Connecticut State Police Training Academy for 22 weeks, can pinpoint hard drives, thumb drives and other technological devices that may be hidden in a home.
The Providence Journal reports: "Given to the state police by the Connecticut State Police, the dog assisted in its first search warrant in June pinpointing a thumb drive containing child pornography hidden four layers deep in a tin box inside a metal cabinet.
That discovery led the police to secure an arrest warrant. "If it has a memory card, he’ll sniff it out,” Detective Adam Houston, Thoreau’s handler, says.
At times, child pornographers hide devices in ceiling tiles or even radios. With the specially trained canines, it doesn't matter where pedophiles hide the evidence of their abuse.
Of course, not every memory card or hard drive contains child pornography. But police say that hard drives containing illicit material are often hidden away from suspects' computers, the Boston Globe reports. Not for long -- Thoreau and some 65 other dogs trained in the Connecticut police academy program are here to help.
Thoreau is leading the charge. His recent arrest was the first in the state canine-assisted search for computer equipment that led to a state search warrant, according to Elite Daily.
To the dogs, though, finding hard drives is a game they seem to love. Just like with explosives and drugs. When they're successful, they're given treats.
