On Tuesday, October 15, 2019, the North Rhine-Westphalian police presented their first data storage detection dogs. Over the past few weeks, the five dogs have been trained over 20 training days to find CDs, hard drives, memory cards, USB sticks, smartphones and SIM cards. "A well-trained dog is an investigator's best friend. And a real relief when it comes to finding evidence," said Minister Herbert Reul at the presentation of the dogs. These are narcotics detection dogs that now have this additional skill. The North Rhine-Westphalian police force is one of the first police forces in Germany to have data detection dogs. Previously, they were mainly used by judicial authorities, including in North Rhine-Westphalia. The training of the dogs is a consequence of the Lügde case, where a data storage detection dog had to be called in and performed well. "We quickly realized that we also need something like this, and the entire police force in North Rhine-Westphalia is now benefiting from this," says Reul.
The dogs are kept in Cologne and Recklinghausen. From there, they can be requested by all police authorities in the state. In May 2019, several pieces of evidence were found by the data storage sniffer dog of the North Rhine-Westphalian justice system. The Ministry of the Interior therefore decided, after consultation with the State Office for Training, Further Education and Personnel Affairs (LAFP) and the State Office for Central Police Services (LZPD), to introduce data storage sniffer dogs to the police.
The trained dogs are "Ali Baba" (Herder mix, five years old), "Herr Rossi" (Malinois, three years old), "Odin" (Malinois, five years old), "Jupp" (Malinois, three years old) and "Theo" (Herder, five years old). "The 300 or so service dogs of the North Rhine-Westphalian police are deployed as guard dogs, narcotics detection dogs, explosives detection dogs, people detection dogs, arson detection dogs, cadaver detection dogs, mantrailers and banknote detection dogs. The fact that they now also sniff out cell phones and hard disks shows their value once again. They are as much a part of our police force as blue lights and sirens," says Reul.
