State authorities have unleashed a four-legged investigator specifically trained to sniff out digital electronics commonly used by sexual predators to exploit children and others.
K-9 Sota, a black British Labrador, was introduced to the public last week by the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) as the first law enforcement dog in Minnesota able to detect cellphones and various data storage devices such as USB drives and micro SD cards, where evidence might be hidden that would help prosecutors in their pursuit to lock up sex crime perpetrators.
Dogs with Sota's talents have not been around all that long. There were just three like her in the United States two years ago, according to the DPS. That number has surged to about three dozen.
Dogs like Sota can recognize a chemical coating on memory storage chips called triphenylphosphine oxide, more commonly known as TPPO.
"K-9 Sota is trained to help find tiny pieces of plastic that may contain critical evidence in a case," said Drew Evans, superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).
Holding up a tiny memory storage chip during a news briefing with Sota and her handler, Evans described a scenario from a recent investigation.
If a criminal "took an item of evidence this small and you just threw it out into the grass and ran out of the house as we're there, it would be very difficult for any of us to find," he said. "She can find it readily and very quickly for us."
Since Sota started her work in May, she has been deployed on 10 investigations including predatory crimes, homicides, financial offenses and other cases that involve digital information storage devices.
