Pinellas Park police welcome new member with unique skills to help save children

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla., (WFLA) — The Pinellas Park Police Department just got a new member of the force with a unique skill set.

It’s a K9 with special training that allows him to sniff out electronic devices to help fight crimes against children.

Jesse is a yellow labrador, the first Electronic Storage Detection K9 — or Electronic Sniffing Dog — for Pinellas County.

He can detect electronics from computers to phones to little SD cards. Besides sniffing out all of the electronics, he is a therapy dog to the department, victims, and the community.

“Jesse is really doing God’s work, he is finding the devices that the humans don’t. We’re talking about micro-SD cards secreted in walls, outlets, door jambs,” said Chief Adam Geissenberger, for Pinellas Park PD.

Jesse and his handler, Detective Brian Schibler, are a part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce.

This Electronic Storage Detection K9 is another tool in the toolbox for Pinellas Park Police to prevent crimes against our most vulnerable.

“Which allows us to go out and find these hidden electronics, these hidden devices, that these predators are using to transmit harmful materials,” Chief Geissenberger said.

Jesse was given to the department by Defenders For Children, an organization that collects donations from the community to help train these special dogs for law enforcement agencies.

“These dogs need to be everywhere, in every agency involving any crime against women and children,” said Executive Director, Toni Clark.

These uniquely trained dogs can detect things that humans cannot.

“On average, they can locate two to three devices per search missed by law enforcement,” Clark said.

“He’s trained to hit on a chemical compound on anything that transmits or stores data. So, something as big as a cell phone or as small as a SIM card, he’ll find,” Schibler said.

The PD said Jesse has already helped other local agencies, including a case this week where he found two devices detectives couldn’t see.

“This is not a probable cause dog, this is a dog that goes in and says: my human friends, you don’t know what you don’t know, let me show you what you missed,” said the Chief. “On average, two to three devices are found, that’s exactly what this team did the other day when assisting Largo.”

The Largo Police Department is grateful to the Pinellas Park Police Department for allowing K9 Jesse to assist our detectives in a recent child pornography investigation.

K9 Jesse was able to locate several electronic devices that were crucial to our investigation.

This K9 has already made a significant impact in a short amount of time and will be a tremendous asset for future investigations.

Largo Police Department

This dog trains at least twice a day to help keep the children in the community, and surrounding ones, from being victimized.

Jesse is one of two Electronic Storage Detection K9s in the Tampa Bay Area and only one of 12 in the state of Florida.

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