Electronic sniffing K9 headed to Arlington County Police Department

ARLINGTON, Va. - A different type of police dog is helping to solve crimes throughout Northern Virginia.

The backstory:

In front of the Arlington County Detention Facility Wednesday, FOX 5 watched K9 Logan sniff out a cell phone hidden in a bush. 

Logan has been with the Arlington County Sheriff's Office for several years now, and according to his handler, Cpl. Matthew Camardi, he's able to detect both narcotics and electronics.

Originally, when the sheriff's office got Logan, he only detected narcotics. Then, marijuana was legalized, and Logan couldn’t do as many drug investigations, Camardi said. So, officials sent him back to school, and for the past several years, he’s also been able to alert investigators to cell phones, flash drives, hard drives, and SD cards.

That is very useful, including for finding hidden images of child sexual exploitation materials. Logan is also used frequently to search the Arlington jail.

What they're saying:

"If they’re doing an investigation and somebody is hiding, for example, a flash drive with images on it, and it’s in an area that’s not gonna be easily accessible or looked at by law enforcement, their nose is incredible, and their nose is gonna pick up things that a human may miss," said Camardi, who also explained what it is exactly that Logan is trained to smell.

"There’s a chemical that the manufacturers coat the boards with that helps prevent overheating, and the official name is triphenylphosphine oxide, but if you look up TPPO – and you can even get that and train just on the TPPO – the dogs will hit on all kinds of electronics."

What's next:

The Arlington County Police Department is also about to get a K9 that can detect electronics. It was first reported by Arlington Now that the county board approved the plan within the past week.

Police department officials said it will still be a couple more months before Arlington County police select and get their dog.

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