31 August 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT)- He is the only dog in Shawnee County who is able to sniff out electronics to help catch criminals: Meet Goose!
Goose is specially trained to seek out electronic storage devices. Mike Kagay, the Shawnee County District Attorney, as well as Brad Barrett, a special investigator with the DA’s office, joined the 27 News show to tell us more about Goose’s crucial job.
“That’s important to us because when we have offenders who store child sexual abuse materials, or other evidence of crime, they tend to use that in a digital format,” Kagay said.
And that’s where Goose comes in.
“When we are targeting someone for an investigation and we are going in there and executing a search warrant, we want to make sure that we are collecting all available evidence,” Kagay said. “They might be able to hide stuff from one of us, but not from Goose.”
And now, some people might be wondering precisely how Goose can detect these electronic devices, and Brad Barrett helped explain the process.
“Any kind of digital storage device, whether it be SD card, a USB drive, internal storage on a phone, all of them have a chemical spray on it to keep them from eroding and overheating,” Barrett said. “So, Goose is trained on that chemical.”
Barrett said before he was introduced to Goose, the pup went through a couple months of training on his own. After that, the pair started training together for weeks before starting.
Kagay said he is very confident in Goose’s abilities to detect these devices.
“He is extremely effective,” Kagay said. “It’s pretty cool to see him in action…He’s a very special dog.”
Goose is the only dog in Kansas right now that can do this, and it’s all because of a program through Operation Underground Railroad, which focuses its operations on sex trafficking and exploitation.
Looking ahead to the future, Kagay said there is the possibility of more dogs like Goose coming to the state of Kansas soon.
“There is another law enforcement agency in the state that is looking at getting one,” he said. “We are the first, but we aren’t the only ones.”
To hear more about Mr. Goose, as well as to hear more from both Barret and Kagay, you can watch the full interview above.