- Tweed and Rob, who belong to Devon and Cornwall Police, were trained by FBI
- The pair are able to detect a chemical which is used to cool memory chips
- Springer spaniel Tweed has already been used in raids by Essex Police this week
British police officers are resorting to using specialist FBI trained dogs which can detect paedophiles computers in the fight against child abuse.
Tweed and Rob, the UK’s first two dogs to be cyber-trained, are now being used to hunt software stashed by paedophiles in their homes.
Detectives are then able to examine the hard drives of hidden computers thoroughly to find out whether there are any illicit images of children.
Police dog handlers PC Martin King and PC Jill Curnow with Tweed, a 19-month-old springer spaniel and Rob, a 20-month-old black Labrador
Tweed and Rob are based in Devon and Cornwall Police and are the first two cyber detection dogs in the UK.
The pair will also be helping out other police forces across the country.
The two dogs underwent specialist training from the FBI, where they learned how to detect a chemical used to cool memory chips in technology.
Springer spaniel Tweed has already been used in raids this week by Essex Police.
Following the raid, PC Jan Simpson of Essex Police said: ‘We will not tolerate those committing this heinous crime and, using all the tools available to us including specialist resources such as Tweed, we will continue to root out those committing these offences and bring them to justice.
‘If you are taking, viewing, downloading or distributing indecent images of children, then it is only a matter of time before you can expect us to knock on your door.
‘We are very grateful to Devon and Cornwall Police for allowing Tweed to provide invaluable support.’
Tweed, who is trained to detect digital storage devices such as USB sticks, SD cards, hard drives and computers, was used in a raid by Essex Police last week