How do you find child porn hidden in a coin? Call the Muscogee sheriff’s new detective dog
One of the new rookie investigators for the Muscogee County sheriff’s office is only 15 months old.
Her name is “Ryder,” a 45-pound black English retriever trained to detect a chemical that’s in all electronic devices. These devices can include cameras small enough to be hidden in fountain pens or motel room coat hooks, or image-storing cards concealed in a casing made to look like a half-dollar bill.
“These are devices that you would overlook,” Sheriff Greg Countryman said Monday as he explained Ryder’s law enforcement mission: To sniff out hidden items holding multiple images of child pornography when human detectives fail to detect them.
“One device can house millions of images,” the sheriff said, and suspects in such cases are adept at hiding such mechanisms from human eyes, but not from canine noses.
Ryder has been with the sheriff’s office for about a month, and already has five cases pending from the search warrants served, said her handler, Investigator Brittney Kumar.
Named for the character of a 10-year-old boy on the animated TV series “PAW Patrol,” Ryder comes from Jordan Detection K9 of Indiana. The company gained national attention in 2015 for supplying the dog “Bear” that found evidence against then-Subway sandwich pitchman Jared Fogle. Fogle later pleaded guilty to having child pornography.
The officers searching for that evidence could not find it, said Toni Clark of the nonprofit Defenders for Children, but the dog needed only minutes to hunt it down.
Clark’s organization helps provide the dogs for law enforcement agencies, placing 11 so far, two in Georgia, Clark said. The $23,000 in funding for Ryder came from Columbus’ traveling motorcycle philanthropists, the Miracle Riders.
That money will help pay for other agencies to get device-sniffing dogs of their own, Clark said.
Ryder started training at 9 months old, and spent 16 days of instruction with Kumar, to get used to her handler. She’s among eight dogs serving with the sheriff’s office, the others trained to find drugs or bombs, or track down suspects.
Besides assisting investigators in hunting down motel-room voyeurs, sex offenders and human traffickers, Ryder serves as an emotional support dog, comforting victims and boosting morale among the officers in her company, Countryman said.
Kumar said Ryder is not always on alert, so she’s not constantly distracted by the bounty of cell phones, laptops and cameras found in almost any setting.
She goes to work when she’s told to, and typically that means clearing the search area of other personnel and their wireless devices, so the dog can focus, the officer said.
She lives with Kumar, and off-duty, Ryder spends her time much like any other dog, rolling on the floor and playing with Kumar’s kids, her handler said.
This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 12:40 PM.