Utah new home for electronics-sniffing ‘porn dog’

URL, a K-9 specially trained to sniff out electronic storage devices, and his handler, Weber County Sheriff Detective Cam Hartman, Odgen, Utah, June 21, 2016 | Photo courtesy of the Weber County Sheriff's Office, St. George News

WEBER COUNTY, Utah – Utah is now home to the one of nine electronic detection K-9s in the country. The dog, who is trained to sniff out electronic storage devices, has been jokingly referred to as “porn dog.”

The Weber County Sheriff’s Office serves as the home of Utah’s first so-called porn dog, a 16-month-old Labrador named “URL,” (pronounced the same as Earl), according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Office.

URL, a K-9 specially trained to sniff out electronic storage devices, and his handler, Weber County Sheriff Detective Cam Hartman, Odgen, Utah, June 21, 2016 | Photo courtesy of the Weber County Sheriff's Office, St. George News
URL, a K-9 specially trained to sniff out electronic storage devices, and his handler, Weber County Sheriff Detective Cam Hartman, Odgen, Utah, June 21, 2016 | Photo courtesy of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

The dog was recently acquired from Jordan Detection K-9 in Greenfield, Indiana, and was originally a shelter rescue.

In addition to being a part of a small group of electronic storage device detecting dogs in the United States, URL is also the only K-9 of his type in the western states region.

According to a Fox 13 News report, while URL is a part of the Weber County Sheriff’s Office, he will likely be requested for use in investigations by other law enforcement agencies from neighboring counties including the FBI and Homeland Security.

“I think as the word gets out, being the only K-9 here, and really in the entire western states, I think he’s going to be pretty busy,” Weber County Sheriff Lt. Lane Findlay said in an interview with Fox 13 News.

URL offers a unique set of skills that will aid investigators in fighting crime, officials said in the press release.

URL comes from the same trainer as Bear, the electronic detection K-9 who played a key role in the arrest of Subway pitchman, Jared Fogle.

URL was specially trained for six months to be able to sniff out chemical compounds common in electronic storage media and devices. These include thumb drives, cellphones, SIM cards, SD cards, external hard drives, tablets and iPads.

“URL does not actually search for illegal materials, but rather his highly sensitive nose has been trained to detect the unique chemical compounds found in the certain electronic components,” officials said in the press release.

“Everything that can digitally store image and video, including CDs and DVDs, he’s trained to seek out,” URL’s handler, Weber County Sheriff Detective Cam Hartman, told Fox 13 News.

Whether it’s child pornography, terrorism intelligence, narcotics or financial crimes information, the K-9 has the ability to find evidence hidden on basically any electronic memory device.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

 

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19 Comments

  • ladybugavenger June 23, 2016 at 6:39 pm

    You should take him to the “crick”

    • Real Life June 24, 2016 at 8:32 am

      That poor dog would be overwhelmed, and lose it’s mind with all of the under age porn.

      • .... June 25, 2016 at 11:02 am

        Oh wow another brilliant comment from Real Life. …how does he do it !

  • old school June 23, 2016 at 10:02 pm

    You gotta be kidding me, a Bluetooth sniffing dog is probable cause??? That’s gotta be right up there with the metabolite DUI. Wake up people, your the one’s voting in the legislators passing all this garbage. Your just giving the cops an excuse to screw with you, or anyone else they want and not worry about being accused of racial profiling

    • ladybugavenger June 24, 2016 at 7:52 am

      It’s ridiculous isn’t it. Just like the drug dogs the handler can command the dog to appear he found something looking like probable cause and there you go your searched on a cops suspicion using a dog the handler controlled to give probable cause.

    • ladybugavenger June 24, 2016 at 7:54 am

      But you shouldn’t be transporting illegal drugs or have child porn on your hard drive or flash drive or anywhere- disgusting perverts

  • 42214 June 23, 2016 at 10:12 pm

    This puts a whole new meaning on scratch and sniff.

  • .... June 24, 2016 at 9:32 am

    ROFLMAO ! go go gadget sniffer !

    • Real Life June 25, 2016 at 4:15 pm

      Oh my! LOL!! How does he do it??? Amazing.

  • theone June 24, 2016 at 9:48 am

    Trained to sniff out the chemicals on storage disks that are most likely present on ones that have never been used because the manufacture created the disk using those chemicals. What a joke. Why is Utah so obsessed with porn anyway? Sometimes I hate living here with all these moral police Mormons. Can you say Utah Taliban?

    • ladybugavenger June 24, 2016 at 6:23 pm

      Go download your porn!

      • ladybugavenger June 24, 2016 at 7:37 pm

        Then they can send the dog in and see if he sniffs it out. Be paranoid, the dog is out sniffing around

        • theone June 25, 2016 at 9:17 am

          Change your user name to something that reflects assumption. You comment on many articles and have yet to include substance or sense.
          I particularly was disgusted with your reaction to the pride event, hate is an ugly thing.
          This dog sniffing nonsense is one reason why we are filling prisons up with non criminals.
          Look in the mirror and see the the disgust I see, lady bug whatever you are.

          • ladybugavenger June 26, 2016 at 12:34 pm

            Oh, you’re one of those people that think I hate because I’m against gay marriage and I’m against the perversion of same sex sex….it’s ok theone. (Wow, Theone was the first name of my ex’s grandpas name, and the middle name of my ex husband, We might be friends)

          • ladybugavenger June 26, 2016 at 1:49 pm

            And one more thing I’m not the substance. I’m the salt that gives the substance flavor

            I think we should be friends 🙂

          • theone June 27, 2016 at 11:29 am

            I’m going to assume you’re Christian (Mormon) and you think marriage is owned by religious people. News flash, the word marriage was invented by the French in the 12th century and inserted to the bible in the 16th century, marriage has nothing to do with religion or heterosexuals. If you’re not a hater I would then suggest you find a better way of phrasing your comments. As far as being friends goes I think we already are.

    • .... June 26, 2016 at 10:26 am

      Careful there ! Real Life gets upset when someone attacks his Mormon Brethren

  • Anejo June 25, 2016 at 4:35 pm

    That dog will have a seizure, at some point in the next few weeks. Utah has the most porn subscriptions in the US so sensory overload is on the cards!

    • Bob June 26, 2016 at 2:33 pm

      LOL, maybe the dog will get addicted to porn, and have to join an LDS recovery program.

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