Trained Dogs Sniff Out Smuggled Jailhouse Cellphones
Associated Press video.
Cellphones are contraband items in jails and prisons, since they can help inmates communicate, both with each other and the outside world, to coordinate illicit activity.
But finding devices that are smuggled inside by family members, friends and even guards could be very difficult … until recently. After discovering that cellphones emit a distinct odor, enterprising individuals have begun training dogs to find them. An Associated Press video shows that it isn’t difficult for the canines to sniff them out.
And the dogs’ skills are known, making their job even easier, according to an earlier AP article.
“Whenever we bring a dog onto a tier we hear toilets flushing, we hear inmates calling out ‘cellphone dog on the tier,’ ” Mark Vernarelli tells the news agency. He is a spokesman for the Maryland prison system.
At least five states, including California, Florida, Maryland and Virginia, reportedly have such cellphone-sniffing dogs.
