A police “digi-dog” who can detect mobile phones and laptops has been a success in her first year according to a county force.
Northamptonshire Police’s PD Rosie is also trained to locate memory cards and even cryptocurrency.
She has found crucial evidence in cases involving robbery, drugs, domestic violence and sexual assaults.
Her handler said that watching her retrieve something that officers could not find is “an incredible feeling”.
One of PD Rosie’s successes was during an investigation into child sex offences.
Officers searched a house and found nothing, but she was able to locate a mobile phone which was hidden under a bed.
It turned out to be vital evidence which helped to get the suspect sent to prison for more than 14 years.
The four-year-old Cocker Spaniel’s talent for finding digital devices relies on her sense of smell and the offer of a reward.
Rosie’s handler, PC Sam Clark, said: “Everything has a smell ultimately, and once we identify that that smell is what we want her to find, she will work tirelessly.
“All she wants to work for is a tennis ball as a reward, and the playtime she gets with her handler.”
PD Rosie has even had training in detecting cryptocurrency.
PC Clark said: “Cryptocurrency is an online currency – people can transfer that into a [physical] wallet form and it’s the wallet that Rosie is trained to detect.
“Things are getting smaller and harder to find, but that’s why the dogs are as good as they are, because she can smell it and we can’t physically smell what she can find.”
PD Rosie is one of a team of dogs which specialise in the recovery of firearms, drugs, and victims of crimes or accidents.
Another of her successes was finding a mobile phone which a robbery suspect had thrown away.
Despite a general-purpose police dog not finding the phone, Rosie located it 14 hours later concealed in difficult terrain.
PC Clark said working with Rosie “challenges me every day. Having that feeling where an officer’s checked an area and not found something and she finds it, it’s an incredible feeling.”
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