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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Peter Brewer

A nose for tech makes canine Kirk the most valued of crime-fighters

He doesn't keep the tidiest kennel, but having what police describe as the canine version of OCD makes Kirk a rare and prized commodity in the crime-fighting business.

He's a technology detection dog and once unleashed, quite literally, into the home of an offender suspected of holding child exploitation material on any manner of storage device, there's no stopping him.

Kirk the technology detection dog rummages through a cupboard during a training exercise, hunting out a storage device hidden inside a glue stick. Picture by Karleen Minney

Aside from his valued nose, Kirk is a super-fit dog, too.

He has to be.

On a search warrant - which can go on for hours - he's relentless, leaving his handler, Jeff Gavidi, puffing with exertion.

"Kirk has to be so fit that he doesn't pant like a normal dog would; he's trained to keep his mouth closed and breathe through his nose so that he is constantly using that amazing sense of smell to find what we are looking for," Mr Gavidi said.

"Keeping up with him is hard work for me, but it's all a game for him."

Finding a USB stick hidden inside a full coffee jar is no problem for the technology detection dogs. Picture by Karleen Minney

Dogs possess a sense of smell many times more sensitive than even the most advanced man-made instrument, and in some breeds as much as 100,000 times better than the best human capability.

Kirk can find a USB hard drive embedded in a glue stick or buried in a jar of coffee like it was a walk in the park. Air tags, micro-SD and SIM cards, pinky-sized storage drives; you name it, he finds it.

There are two of these digital detection dogs in the ACT, and a range of others in federal kennels around the country. In the territory, such are these dogs' effectiveness at tracking down well-hidden digital storage devices that the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse team always has a detection dog ready to go in when their child exploitation warrants are executed.

Ounce and Order are two black Labrador pups being trained up for crime-fighting roles at the federal canine operations centre at Majura. Picture by Karleen Minney

The human search team goes in on the warrant first, turning over the most logical hiding places and seizing any mobile phones, laptops or hard drives.

Then it's Kirk's turn - and he doesn't miss a trick.

Digital drives are all coated with a fire-retardant compound known as triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO). It's this compound that Kirk is trained to hunt for so effectively.

"They [technology detection dogs] are really fine-tuned to find what we are looking for," federal Assistant Commissioner Alison Wegg said.

"These are highly trained, highly motivated dogs; they will work all day if we let them."

Waylon is one of the AFP's newest "hybrid" explosive detection dogs, who is trained to work remotely from his handler. Picture by Karleen Minney

That capability was recently exported to Turkey where local police using an AFP-trained technology detection dog arrested a notorious crime boss accused of money laundering and international drug trafficking.

And at a time when domestic terrorism is a feared possibility, a new canine capability has emerged.

Known as "hybrid" high-risk explosive detection capability, this is where the dog is sent remotely, off-leash, from the handler to determine where an explosive device may be located in a house, in a vehicle, or out in the open.

Kirk and his handler Jeff Gavidi during a technology-hunting training exercise at AFP Majura. Picture by Karleen Minney

It has been the case for years, and used extensively by the Australian Defence Force in the Afghan war, that dogs and handlers would work closely together in seeking out improvised explosive devices.

But this close-coupled technique threatens both human and canine.

Now the dogs are taught to seek devices on their own. And in darkness, the handler can direct the dog with a small hand-held laser. When an explosive is sniffed out, the handler retrieves the dog from harm's way with a small, almost inaudible whistle.

There are 91 dogs of differing capabilities either in training or deployed around Australia by the federal police.

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