Officials working to find $15k for electronics sniffing dog

Bartholomew County officials are working to raise funds for a new police dog to help search for electronic devices.

At last week’s meeting of the Bartholomew County Commissioners, the board gave its approval for officials with the county’s internet crimes against children task force to begin investigating acquiring a dog trained to find electronic devices such as micro memory cards and hard drives. The dog would also be trained to act as a therapy dog to help children victims through interviews and stressful situations.

Authorities say that a study of 2,273 search warrants executed last year with these specially trained dogs shows they had an 82% success rate in finding evidence missed in the initial search. The evidence the dogs recovered resulted in 1,478 arrests and the rescue of 428 survivors.

The Bartholomew County Prosecutor’s office announced last week that the task force is exploring ways to fund the project. The initial start up cost is anticipated to be up to $15,000 to pay for the dog and a two-week training with the dog and a handler.

Anyone interested in helping fund the project can contact Jay Frederick, criminal investigator for the prosecutor’s office at  [email protected]