A ‘fuzzy weapon’: New SC K-9 officer can find hidden devices that may have illegal images

Joseph Bustos

South Carolina’s Probation, Parole and Pardon Services has a new “fuzzy weapon” to help the agency find hidden electronic devices possibly containing child pornography.

The state agency on Monday unveiled its newest K-9 officer Chip, a 1-year-old Golden Retriever-Labrador mix, who is trained to find electronic devices, such as USB drives, flash drives, cellphones, hard drives or SD cards, which agents may miss during a search of a sex offender’s property.

Some SD cards are so small they can hide inside of a fake nickel or half-dollar, said Chad Gambrell, the deputy director of the agency’s offender supervision and enforcement services

The Greenville-based Defenders for children donated the K-9 to South Carolina, with help from Spectrum and the South Carolina Grand Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, a charitable fraternal and social organization.

Chip is the seventh electronics detecting K-9 the Defenders of Children has placed. Five of the other dogs are in Anderson, Charleston, Greenville, Richland and Spartanburg counties. One K-9 was donated to Bryan County in Georgia.

South Carolina Probation, Parole and Pardon Services recently received K-9 Chip, a Golden Retriever and Labrador mix, to detect hidden electronic devices during searches. Chip’s handler is Agent Benjy Partain. Joseph Bustos/jbustos@thestate.com
South Carolina Probation, Parole and Pardon Services recently received K-9 Chip, a Golden Retriever and Labrador mix, to detect hidden electronic devices during searches. Chip’s handler is Agent Benjy Partain. Joseph Bustos/jbustos@thestate.com

Each K-9 costs about $23,000, which includes training for the dog and its handler. Jerry Adger, director of probation, parole and pardon services, said the agency would like to have more electronics K-9s.

”It’s very expensive to do so,” Adger said. “Without the community support and the private sector we would still be trying to figure this out. So we would love to grow it, but it’s going to take all of us.”

Adger’s agency oversees the monitoring of about 700 sex offenders, who are subject to random vehicle searches, homes and possessions to make sure they are in compliance with conditions of their release.

Before the agency received the K-9, its digital forensics unit conducted 291 forensics searches this year and found 51 violations, including four violations for child pornography.

“However, during a search it is possible that our agents will miss something due to some of these devices being so extremely small,” Gambrell said.

South Carolina Probation, Parole and Pardon Services recently received K-9 Chip, a Golden Retriever and Labrador mix, to detect hidden electronic devices during searches. Joseph Bustos/jbustos@thestate.com
South Carolina Probation, Parole and Pardon Services recently received K-9 Chip, a Golden Retriever and Labrador mix, to detect hidden electronic devices during searches. Joseph Bustos/jbustos@thestate.com

Each K-9, which can work for eight to 10 years, can find on average two additional devices that are missed by law enforcement during a search.

“The electronics detection K-9 is a necessary and powerful tool to help stop criminals from hurting innocent victims,” said Toni Clark, CEO of the Greenville-based Defenders for Children.

The K-9s are not limited to sex offender cases. They can work on murder or terrorism cases that involve electronic devices, Clark said.

“The No. 1 duty of government to keep people safe, so this is another dimension that,” Gov. Henry McMaster said. “It’s unusual to have such a powerful weapon for law enforcement to come in such a beautiful fuzzy package.”

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