DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department has a new way to track down child sex abuse suspects.
K-9 Officer Remi was introduced as the newest member of Dallas Police’s Crimes Against Children’s Unit last week.
She is trained to sniff out electronic devices.
“She is already working, and we are already running her on search warrants and found stuff that is hidden way in the back of dresses, behind books. She’s found stuff buried in clothing that we would have to dig through and have the potential of missing,” said Dallas Police Department Detective Michael Fontenot.
Remi is one of only two Electronic Detection Dogs in Texas.
“An electronic detection dog is a dog that’s trained to hit on a scent that is basically a fancy glue that is in all devices that can store content in an electronic format,” said Fontenot.
WFAA went along with her handler, Fontenot, on a training exercise to see what she would find.
Amazingly, she detected a small SD card hidden in a cabinet, which is an example of what detectives are looking for -- anything where suspects can store child abuse and pornography images and videos.
Remi can go through an entire house in half the time it would take detectives.
”We are confident we are not missing anything, and it expedites the amount of time we spend in an offenders home,” said Fontenot.
Remi is also cross-trained as a therapy and support animal for victims who are being interviewed about what’s happened to them, and for officers who have to investigate heinous crimes against children.
"”It’s really helped with morale in the unit and really helped us with what we are dealing with,” said Fontenot.
Remi can also find things submerged in water, and recently helped homicide detectives find a phone that had been tossed in a field with tall grass.
Todd Jordan, who owns Jordan Detection K9, trains dogs like Remi to do things humans can’t do. Jordan has a dog named Bear that became famous after locating key evidence in the home of Jared Fogle, the former spokesman for Subway.
Jordan has teamed up with a non-profit group called Operation Underground Railroad. The organization fights to end sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. He and Operation Underground Railroad are working to try and get as many of these types of canines to departments across the country.