Tweed, a 19-month-old springer spaniel, and Rob, a 20-month-old black Labrador, are the first police dogs in the UK, and the only dogs outside of the USA, to be trained to detect digital storage devices.
Chief Superintendent Jim Nye said: ‘This is an historic step for the Alliance and policing in the UK. These dogs will give the police a new way to fight the threat of terrorism, paedophiles and fraudsters.
‘Tweed and Rob have been used by police at crime scenes and executions of warrants, not just within Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, but across the whole UK.
‘The dogs have been used to sniff out data devices such as mobile devices, USB sticks, SD cards, hard drives and computers.
‘Once again, we have shown that we are prepared to look at new technology and will always strive to get one step ahead to tackle criminality.’
Rob and Tweed are part of a trial, and the force will assess the success of these dogs and their new skills at the end of the 2017 with a view to rolling this out wider.
The dogs live at home with their new full-time police dog handlers, PC Martin King and Pc Jill Curnow.
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