How sniffer dogs are being used to combat child pornography in Australia: ‘Scoured the world’

Police sniffer dogs trained to detect child abuse material and digital terrorism are being used to crack down on a significant rise of online crime in Australia.

Nearly two dozen technology detection dogs have been deployed by federal authorities to sniff out criminals hidden mobile phones, USB drives, memory cards, and easily concealed SIM cards

This comes as reports of online child sexual exploitation to the Australian Federal Police more than doubled over the past two years, with cases rising by more than 180 per cent between 2018 to 2023.

In 2019, the AFP “scoured the world” to find experts to train Australia’s first ever fleet of tech detection dogs to help combat the issue after the government poured in $5.7m to recruit canines into its crackdown on child sexual abuse.

AFP Deputy Commissioner Lesa Gale said she was “deeply concerned” about an increase in illegal online activities.

“The creation of child abuse material is a horrendous crime,” she said.

The victims in these images are children and they are being used as a commodity for the sexual gratification of others, including those who try to make money from the abuse.”

In 2021, an AFP detection dog helped police located $70k cash stashed inside in a business accused of running a money laundering syndicate.

A team of AFP specialist technology detection dogs assisted in the arrest of an Adelaide man in March after sniffing out a device which contained hundreds of images of child abuse material.

Dozens of new Labrador pups have been now recruited into the AFP training program, according to federal police, with eight new dogs graduating as fully fledged canines in 2023.