ASHLAND, Ky. (WSAZ) – The Ashland Police Department has sworn in a new member of the team, Mabel.
She is not your average K-9, she’s an electronic sniffing dog, one of very few in the world with this training to enforce crimes involving child sexual abuse material.
Mabel works to catch predators who download abuse material online and store it where they think no one will find.
“As we know with technology, storage devices are getting smaller and smaller and smaller,” said Mabel’s handler, Detective Clyde Porter. “She makes us ensure we aren’t missing stuff. Even those micro SD cards that are the size of your thumbnail, she’s able to find those. She’s able to find things that are buried, underwater.”
Porter says Mabel can sniff out SD cards hidden in places you wouldn’t expect, such as soda cans, lipstick tubes, and lint rollers.
“Any crime that has an electronic nexus,” he said. “If we have a murder and the suspect flees, and they toss their cell phone with key evidence on it, she can go out in the woods and find that cell phone.”
Mabel, like a lot of us is food driven. She gets her meals each day by playing hide and seek. Porter hides SD cards in items around the room, and she has to find them to eat.
“Even on Saturday and Sunday when I’m off work, I wake up and hide stuff for her to find so she can eat,” Porter said.
Mabel comes from Operation Underground Railroad, a collective working to eradicate child exploitation.
She is one of only five in Kentucky and 172 in the country with this training.
Ashland Police say being chosen to get an asset like Mabel shows their dedication to digital forensics, and getting criminals behind bars.
“It’s not only for us and the citizens of Ashland, she is a regional asset,” Porter said. “I’m an FBI Task Force Officer, so she can go pretty much anywhere and be used.”
Mabel is the first K-9 with Ashland police in over 40 years. On top of her unique skillset, she’s been a bright spot, from every day life to crime scenes.
“She’s actually cross-trained in victim support, so if we have a child victim she can go to the interview at Hope’s Place with them, lay through the whole interview and let them love on her,” Porter said.
She’s been on four search warrants so far, each time finding something investigators have missed.
“We are just really blessed with the opportunity to have her,” Porter said.
The department says Mabel is very friendly and loves kids. If you see her out and about, she’d love for you to come up to her and say hi.
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