Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office K9 Rooster can sniff out electronic devices when searching for evidence

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – The Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) has a new way to find evidence of a crime.

A new K9 officer, named Rooster, works at the detention center and has some capabilities that none of their other canines have ever had.

“Rooster is a two-year-old Belgium Malinois. We got him from our regular supplier. He’s been with us now since about November of last year,” said Chief Deputy Sam Richardson of the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office.

Rooser is a single-mission K9, focused on sniffing – sniffing for drugs, but he can also sniff out electronics. It makes him unique in the department and he can find things like hidden cell phones or computer drives.

“He has been just a real godsend in terms of enhancing our ability to discover contraband in our jail, as well as giving us the ability on trafficking cases, child abuse type cases, to go ahead and discover electronics pursuant to search warrants and things like that,” said Chief Deputy Richardson.

“To put it in perspective, humans are 5-to-6,000,000 sensories in our oral factories. A dog is 300 million,” said Maj. Ray Dixon with the Dorchester County Sheriff’s Office.

So, Rooster can sniff out drugs or cell phones in the jail, but he can also be used to gather evidence in cases involving children.

“And what we call ICAC cases or Internet Crimes Against Children, we take Rooster to a search warrant for that kind of thing and he’s there to sniff out any electronic devices that the suspect may be trying to conceal from our site,” said Maj. Dixon.

The sheriff’s office said they would like to have additional K9s like Rooster with his capabilities in the near future. That would allow them to have 24-hour coverage with his special abilities.