K9 Paddy joining the Vigo County Sheriff’s Office and ICAC Task Force
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)— Members of law enforcement use many different resources to try and find evidence that could make or break a case, and the Vigo County Sheriff’s Office got a new resource that can help sniff out evidence.
Paddy is a golden retriever that has been trained to help sniff out electronic devices that could be holding evidence for a crime, but are hidden and may not be easily found when a detective or police officer is searching an area. Terre Haute Fire Chief Darrick Scott, who is Paddy’s handler and a special deputy with the Vigo County Sheriff’s Office, described what Paddy is searching for when called to service.
“Anything that stores data is coated with a chemical to protect the data from the heat,” Scott said. “Whether it be the heat from your cell phone, your computer, whatever it may be, your camera, that it is coated with a chemical called TPPO and that protects the data from the heat of the device. It’s not the lithium battery; it’s nothing else except every storage data across the world is coated with TPPO.”
Paddy will continue training to help the sheriff’s office locate evidence that can be crucial for a case, but he will also be working with the Indiana Crimes Against Children Task Force, allowing him to work jointly with several different departments in the area.
“Paddy’s trained twice a day,” Scott said. “That’s how he’s fed. We have to hide stuff. He has to find it to get fed. So that’s his job, and my job, we’re becoming a great team. We’ve been working together for about two months now. We’re proud to be part of ICAC and part of all this Wabash Valley team effort. We hope to be a great tool and resource so we can take these sexual predators off the streets.”
Captain Gary Shook with the Terre Haute Police Department mentioned how Paddy will be able to help find things that could be hidden from sight.
“When we are doing search warrants, we are looking for cell phones and hard drives and data that potentially is hidden that we don’t find, Shook said. “That is where Paddy’s skills come into play, which is to find the stuff that’s hidden that we may miss.”
Vigo County Sheriff Derek Fell believes Paddy will be a valuable member of the team and can help find important evidence to help put the bad guys away.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we are building a proper and solid case against these child predators to help the Vigo County Prosecutor’s Office or other jurisdictions as well,” Fell said. “Whether it’s a Vigo County or surrounding county, we want to do everything we can to make sure we are building that case, to make it a solid case for future prosecution.”