IL Uses Electronics-Sniffing Dog For Child Porn Cases

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Chicago (AP) - An Illinois county prosecutor's office is using an 18-month-old black Labrador to help detect a chemical in electronic devices that store images of child pornography.

The Lake County News-Sun reports that the Lake County State's Attorney's Office purchased Browser in November for $10,000 from Jordan Detection K-9.

The Indiana-based company trained a similar dog that located a thumb drive in the case of former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle, who was convicted of trading in child pornography.

Carol Gudbrandsen is a cybercrimes forensic analyst and Browser's handler. She says the dog sits or whines when he sniffs the chemical. He's detected SD cards in obscure places, including inside a slipper or a jewelry box.

Cache is the first dog in Illinois trained to detect SD cards, thumb drives or other electronic devices that can store digital content that could include child pornography. (Credit: Will County state's attorney's office)

Browser has helped execute about a dozen search warrants, but he mainly focuses on child exploitation investigations.