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| Canine taking on Cell-Phone Smuggling |
| By ktvu.com |
| Published: 05/05/2009 |
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Prison officials say smuggled cell phones are more lucrative than drugs and that they allow inmates to commit crimes from behind bars. But now, authorities are fighting a high-tech threat with a low-tech strategy: cell-phone sniffing dogs. Caesar is a 5-year old Belgian Malinois trained to sniff out contraband smuggled into California prisons. And he has a nose for cell phones. This is probably one of the biggest security risks we have today in the department, said Sgt. Wayne Conrad, Caesar's trainer. And that's why we're trying to do everything we can to combat it. Sgt. Conrad and Caesar are part of pilot program at California State Prison, Solano in Vacaville. Caesar is trained to associate the smell of a cell phone with his toy and reward. Caesar can tell a cell phone from a television or calculator based on a unique scent given off by the device. He can even detect the scent outside of an inmate's cell. A pay phone is the only phone inmates are allowed to use. But cell phones smuggled into prison can equal a big pay day for inmates. Right now its more lucrative than drugs, said Lt. Robin Bond, the officer in charge of security and investigations at CSP Solano. According to Lt. Bond, inmates can sell the phones for up to $1,000 each.High demand equals ample supply and many cell phones confiscated. From January through March 2009, 208 phones were found among inmates. That's an average of more than two cell phones a day in the first three months of the year. Sometimes the phones are hidden in cereal boxes, jars of peanut butter or deodorant packaging. Lt. Bond says inmates can use the phones to order hits on inmates in other prisons. They can use camera phones to take pictures of guards. They can surf the Web and plan escapes. With Google Earth, you can come right down onto the institution and show the perimeter of the Institution, said Lt. Bond. There are just so many things you can do online. Though the technology exists to block cell phone signals, there are several factors that make using such technology problematic. First, it is a FCC violation to use cell phone blocking technology. Second, it creates a safety concern both for prison staff who are allowed to use cell phones and for those who live in the surrounding area that could be affected if the blocking technology bleeds outside of the prison grounds. Given those issues, it seems likely that the job will be left up to low-tech searches by guards and specially trained dogs like Caesar. Sgt. Conrad for one is confident of his four-legged partner’s abilities: "I can search ten cells in the amount of time that an officer can search one cell." If Caesar's success continues, he may spark a new K-9 force dedicated to sniffing out cell phones. Not bad for a dog rescued from a shelter at a cost to taxpayers of just $300. Cell phone smuggling into prisons is more lucrative than drugs and less risky. Currently it is not against the law to smuggle in cell phones and inmates face only a light administrative penalty of an additional 30 to 90 days in prison. On Wednesday, the California State Senate is expected to vote on a bill that would make it a felony to smuggle cell phones to prison inmates.Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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