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A crowd gathered at the Decatur County Sheriff’s Office last Thursday morning, with representatives from Bainbridge Public Safety, as well as the Thomas County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia Bureau of Investigation present. The reason for their gathering: the introduction of the DCSO’s new electronic detection dog, K9 Duchess.

As an electronics K9, Duchess is capable of sniffing out all manner of technology, ranging from computers, to cell phones, hard drives, and SIM cards. These K9 units are trained to search these devices out, primarily with the intent of finding digital evidence of child abuse/pornography and human trafficking. The Sheriff’s Office acquired Duchess with the Defenders For Children organization, along with funding provided by an anonymous donor from Thomasville.

“This compassionate family deeply believes in the incredible capabilities of electronic detection K9s, and their remarkable ability to assist law enforcement in finding vital evidence to rescue and safeguard children,” said Sheriff Wiley Griffin.

Defenders For Children CEO and Executive Director Toni Clark spoke at the meeting. “We’re just so blessed to be able to help in some way to lock up these horrible criminals,” she said. “Especially when we know, on average, the criminals can have from one to some with hundreds, of victims.”

Following Clark, Duchess’s handler, DCSO Officer Charles King, spoke about the training he underwent with her.

“We took a couple of days to learn each other,” he said. “It is a real adventure with her, she is a high-driven dog… she has a strong work ethic.”

King gave an anecdote about how effective Duchess is, recalling how he and Gabe Cofer hid a SIM card in a coffee machine, in the actual coffee grounds, with the expectation that “there’s no way she can find this device,” only for her to immediately find it.

To close the meeting, Sherif Griffin made a commitment to surrounding law enforcement agencies, “that if you need us, we will come to you, because we’re all about keeping our children safe.”