How O.U.R. and Jordan Detection K9 Are Putting ESD Detection K9s Across the Nation

How O.U.R. and Jordan Detection K9 Are Putting ESD Detection K9s Across the Nation
February 18, 22

Jordan Detection K9

What started with one dog has grown into a nationwide task force of K9s, all helping law enforcement fight against human trafficking and child exploitation. Todd Jordan had worked as a firefighter for 30 years handling accelerant K9s when he was approached and asked to train a dog to sniff out storage devices. 

Shortly after, Todd received “Bear,” the K9 he would be training to sniff out these electronic devices. Without any prior experience with this type of training, Todd immediately got to work with Bear. Within two weeks, Bear was able to locate small storage devices hidden in discrete places. 

When law enforcement saw what Bear was capable of, the K9 and Todd were invited on search warrants to aid in investigations. Bear continued to indicate and locate evidence on the local search warrants he was working on. However, it wasn’t until a massive criminal investigation that Bear and Todd’s work truly got noticed for its significance. 

Bear located a thumb drive that was a key piece of evidence in a large-scale investigation breaking news across the nation. After that, Todd knew that the potential for these dogs was huge, and soon after, Jordan Detection K9 began. At the time, Bear was one of three electronic storage devise (ESD) detection K9s in the United States. In the last five years, Todd has trained 51 ESD detection K9s to be equipped to help in these criminal investigations.


O.U.R. and Jordan Detection K9's Collaboration Changes Human Trafficking Investigations Forever

In 2017, members of Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) caught word of the work Todd was doing at Jordan Detection K9 and eagerly donated their first dog to the cause. By the end of 2021, O.U.R. is on track to have donated over 40 dogs to Jordan Detection K9 to train, handle and deploy. Both O.U.R. and Todd are committed to equipping law enforcement with the vital resources they need to conduct and successfully prosecute human trafficking cases across the states, and providing an ESD detection K9 is a major step in the right direction. 

“There’s only 62 Internet Crimes Against Children [ICAC] task forces around the nation so they are hitting the goal of getting the dogs in every task force.” - Todd Jordan, Jordan Detection K9 

Empowering law enforcement with ESD detection K9s has shifted the trajectory of how law enforcement conducts human trafficking investigations and gives an advantage to finding evidence that could be missed by a human investigator alone. Todd comments, “When we leave a house, the biggest question is 'Man, did we get it all?'”' Having an ESD detection K9 on the case increases the likelihood of finding evidence that could often be missed. 

“I think one of the greatest things about what we’re doing here with these dogs from Jordan Detection is that they take out the human element. They change our perspective. They give us the ability to look beyond the normal; that’s pivotal because when we deploy a dog to a home now we’re able to search areas that eyes can’t see. . . .They increase our search and increase our ability to find things through the odor and that is something that you just can't replace.” - Deputy Matt Fleming

Jordan Detection K9 was expanding at such a rapid pace that Todd needed more space and resources to continue the program, so O.U.R. recently donated a barn to be used as the new training facility. The new facility is located on the Hope Center Indy campus, a center dedicated to helping women of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation heal. 

Collaborating with Todd Jordan has been a great blessing to O.U.R. and the law enforcement agencies we work with who are now equipped with one of these specialized dogs. O.U.R. will continue to support Jordan Detection K9 until every Internet Crimes Against Children task force has an ESD detection K9 by its side.