Cybercrime
The Malinois Shepherd Luna is the federal police’s latest weapon in the fight against cybercrime. During house searches, the dog can detect USB sticks, mobile phones and SD cards. “A dog can quickly and specifically find those materials through its sense of smell, while detectives would have to work for hours to achieve the same result.”
Luna is the very first IT sniffer dog in our country and can be used to search for data carriers during a house search. In this way, the police are responding to a movement that has been going on for some time, in which crime is increasingly moving to the digital world. “Data carriers are important in many criminal files,” says Minister of the Interior Annelies Verlinden (CD&V). “This could concern files involving images of child abuse, USB sticks with the keys for cryptocurrencies, terrorism cases or serious organized crime where certain contacts or data are stored on a mobile phone. Thanks to its sense of smell, a dog can quickly and specifically find those materials, while detectives would have to work for hours to achieve the same result.”
Luna is specifically trained to detect data carriers and therefore does not respond to other electronic equipment. The project is still in a test phase, but it has already produced positive results. The sheepdog has already been used in about twenty house searches in the past year and each time managed to find something that remained hidden during the human search. For example, Luna once discovered a hidden mobile phone belonging to the suspect in a murder file. “Electronic carriers are becoming smaller and smaller and can easily be hidden. Then investigators may quickly overlook it,” the police said.
High-tech society
It remains to be seen what exactly the impact of ICT sniffer dogs will be. “It’s a both-and story,” says Verlinden. “We also continue to focus on technology and digital applications, but dogs have already proven that they can make a difference.”
The project follows similar initiatives in the Netherlands, Germany and the United States, among others. “Luna is particularly successful compared to sniffer dogs abroad. They are standing there looking at the results here with wide eyes,” says Verlinden.
“It is strange that in a high-tech society we have to rely on such a trivial instrument as a dog,” says Minister of Justice Paul van Tigchelt (Open VLD).
In the long term, the dog brigade of the federal police wants to submit a recognition file so that the use of the ICT dog can become a recognized discipline. “We are now starting small and if the usefulness is proven, we can possibly expand further and also train other dogs,” says Rony Vandaele, head of the dog brigade.
