Officials welcome electronics-sniffing police dog to Bartholomew County

The Bartholomew County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is introducing Rico to the community. Rico is a golden lab mix police dog trained to detect electronic storage devices during searches.

Rico is partnered with Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department Detective Jarod Aspenson and they recently completed specialized training at Jordan Detection K9 in Indianapolis. The training allows Rico to detect devices including SD cards, external hard drives, USB drives, tablets, and other digital media. Authorities say that the devices can be extremely small and easily concealed during a search. The dogs are able to detect a chemical compound commonly found in adhesives used in electronic storage devices.

Rico will also serve as a comfort animal for survivors during investigations and court proceedings.

The team will also be assisting agencies throughout south-central Indiana with investigations and search warrants.

The task force is a combined unit of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office, Columbus Police Department  and Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office investigating Internet-facilitated crimes against children and proactively prevent child exploitation.

Photo: Rico and BCSD Detective Jarod Aspenson. Photo courtesy of Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s Office