How Rosie the 'digi-dog' has helped sniff out key evidence in Northamptonshire Police investigations

A police dog, who is known as the ‘digi-dog’, has been with Northamptonshire Police for around seven months and has already helped in large number of investigations.

PD Rosie is Northamptonshire Police’s Digital Evidence Detection dog. Alongside her handler, PC Sam Clark, she is trained to search for devices containing memory and storage including USB sticks, SD Cards, digital cameras, Go Pro and head mounted cameras, hard drives, sim cards, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, car keys fobs, sat navs and more.

Dogs like PD Rosie are able to sniff out the chemical compounds in electronics of all shapes and sizes making them invaluable to an organisation in which digital evidence can be key to securing a charge and conviction.

PD Rosie’s handler, PC Sam Clark said: “In the short time since we started working together, PD Rosie has been requested by officers 46 times, resulting in a number of good outcomes, many of which align with the force’s matters of priority.

“Her capabilities are extensive with her nose trained to find all manner of things – from mobile phones connected to drug dealing, to tracker devices in stalking cases, to assisting our MOSOVO Team when they are visiting registered sex offenders and need to know if any devices are being concealed.

“I’m really proud of her work so far and look forward to the many more good results we will achieve together.”

Some of PD Rosie’s results since starting in November 2022:

In January 2023, PD Rosie located two concealed mobile phones as part of a rape investigation which assisted in the remand application of the suspect.

In February 2023, PD Rosie was requested by CID to search a route for a victim’s outstanding mobile phone, which was suspected to contain video evidence of a robbery offence. A search by officers was completed and the item was not recovered however PD Rosie found the device after searching for 45 minutes by the side of the A428.

In March 2023, PD Rosie assisted the Northampton Neighbourhood Policing Team with a warrant whereby she located a County Lines drugs phone concealed within the sofa of the address.