Texas police employ "porn dog" to sniff out child predators

CONROE, Texas, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Police in Texas' Montgomery County are planning to use a dog trained to sniff out hard drives and other storage devices to help investigate child pornography cases.

The company is set to receive a K-9 chocolate Labrador retriever named Brody to assist the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office in finding hidden storage devices used by child predators and other criminals.

"It's innovative, it's unique, it's cutting edge," Montgomery County Crimestopper Jon Dumas told KHOU of the K-9s he dubbed "porn dog" due to its specific skill set. "It's extremely catching and fitting because that's what it's there to do, sniff out child pornographers."

A similar K-9 named Bear was notably used in the case of former Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle to find hidden storage devices in his home.

Montgomery County applied for a grant to receive a K-9 from the same company that trained Bear, as First Assistant District Attorney Phil Grant told KTRK that a "team effort" is required to combat child pornography.

"Nowadays with the way porn is used and transmitted, it's all electronic and stored electronically," he said. "It's not that they're sniffing out the child porn per say, but they're sniffing out the storage media they are using to keep these images."

Brody is expected to join the K-9 department in January after undergoing training at an estimated cost of $12,000.