New Device-Sniffing Dog Used To Protect Children In Rogers County

The Rogers County Sheriff's Office now has the first and only electronic device sniffing K9 in the state of Oklahoma. The sheriff's office got the specially trained dog, Rosco, from a federal grant through Operation Underground Railroad, and he will be used to help fight crimes against children.

Rosco is one of only 109 of these special dogs in the U.S. and he’s trained to find electronic devices like iPads, cell phones, USB drives, and even micro SD cards. His main job is to save kids from predators.

Rosco is trained to detect a certain chemical inside the electronic devices. He just finished two weeks of training in Indianapolis with his handler, Lieutenant John Haning with the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office. He will be used to search homes, businesses, or wherever he is needed.

"It is important that we find all those devices that possibly show that this predator we just took into custody was hands on with someone so we can identify those victims and get them the help they need,” said Haning.

Since Rosco will be used to help protect kids, it was important to the sheriff’s office to have kids name him. Students and staff at Justus-Tiawah Schools came up with the name and it was put to a vote on the sheriff’s Office Facebook page. Rosco was the winner.

"It is meaningful that these smaller school districts like this can be involved, and want to be involved. This is just a little peace of heaven right here that, rural Rogers County School, that are doing well and being involved in the community,” said Sheriff Scott Walton.

Sheriff Walton says there isn’t a town, county, or state not affected by child predators. He says they will never turn down resources that will help protect kids.

"You would hate to think that a piece of electronics got left behind and not discovered that someone could have made a case on,” said Walton.

"These sick minds that prey on our children, we have to be as relentless in our hunt for them as they are in the hunt for our children."