Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office Gets New Electronic Detecting K9 to Help with Child Pornography, Sex Trafficking Cases

The Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office has a new four-legged member, a K9 used to detect electronic devices related to child pornography and human trafficking cases.  ABC 31 News’ Joel Massey met the dog and got a demonstration of his skills.

Grant Parish Sheriff Steven McCain said, “Ziggy is brand new to our team but I think he’s going to be a great asset for our community for years to come.”

Ziggy is a 2-year-old English Lab trained to sniff out electronics to aid in the investigation of sex trafficking and child pornography.

The Grant Parish Sheriff’s Office was one of nine agencies in the United States selected by Operation Underground Railroad to receive a K9 sponsored by the organization.  McCain said all costs associated with Ziggy are being paid for by the nonprofit.

“Operation Underground Railroad paid for the cost of the dog. They paid for the training, the transportation for the deputy to go to the school for a couple of weeks and they pay for the expenses for the entire life of the dog whether it be food or veterinary bills.  It’s completely covered by this organization.”

Randy Golding with Operation Underground Railroad talks about why Grant Parish was chosen.

“Our organization exists to fight human trafficking and child exploitation.  Grant Parish, they came to us through some other contacts through law enforcement in Louisiana interested in an electronic storage detection K9.  As far as I know there is no other electronic storage detection K9 currently working in the state of Louisiana.  So it was a pretty high priority for Operation Underground Railroad to place a dog there.”

Here’s a demonstration of Ziggy sniffing out some electronic storage devices like a cell phone and a USB drive.

“We don’t want contraband being brought into the jail, that’s one thing.  If there’s an investigation going on with child pornography or human trafficking or sex trafficking and a search warrant is being performed on a house or a building or an area Chance and his partner Ziggy can be called in to help to make sure the detectives are not overlooking any devices that may be hidden.”