FARGO (KFGO) – The first dog in North Dakota trained to sniff out electronic devices for law enforcement is on the job in Fargo.
“Hex” will be used to find computers, cellphones, thumb drives, memory cards and other devices that store child pornography. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says “Hex” recently completed six months of specialized training in Indiana.
“If we arrest somebody, for example, for attempting to lure a minor over the internet, when we go to their homes armed with a search warrant, it’s not uncommon that they have these storage devices with hundreds, sometimes thousands of images of child pornography.”
“We had a test-run for him in my office. We hid five electronic devices, some as small as a memory card about the size of a fingernail, which was hidden inside a 25-cent piece in a jar of other quarters. We put him to the test and he wandered around the office and found every one of those devices” Stenehjem said.
Stenehjem says “Hex” was paid for with a private grant from “Operation Underground Railroad” an organization that helps law enforcement fight child trafficking and crimes against children nationwide.
“Hex” is based with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Fargo, but Stenehjem says the dog is available to law enforcement across the state.
