The State of Maine is setting a powerful example in the fight against human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Maine State Police has two “secret weapons” in this fight: two highly specialized Electronic Storage Detection (ESD) K9s, Doc and Marley. These Our Rescue sponsored ESD K9s are often called out as “force magnifiers” on child exploitation cases, helping law enforcement find and retrieve storage devices like cell phones, USB drives, and micro-sized hidden cameras that can be overlooked by human searches.
“Criminals go to great lengths to hide electronic storage equipment, a sign they’re likely storing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on them,” says Derek Benner, CEO of Our Rescue. “The devices Doc and Marley find can contain key evidence that may help put perpetrators behind bars. This evidence can also help reduce the time it takes for investigators to find a vulnerable child who is being exploited and bring them to safety.”
A native of Norway, Maine, Benner recalls a very different childhood – one without cell phones, online gaming apps, or social media.
“When I was growing up, we found ways to entertain ourselves that had nothing to do with the internet. There was no ‘online.’ We spent summers hanging out with friends or riding bikes, swimming, and watching videos rented at the video store,” he says. “Our parents warned us to ‘stick together’ and ‘don’t talk to strangers.’ ‘Stranger Danger’ was a phrase parents used often and we knew what it meant.”
Benner notes that the ‘Stranger Danger’ of the past still exists today, but it has evolved.
“Today, internet criminals are increasingly sophisticated in the ways they groom children online, luring them off of platforms they trust into private chat rooms where conversations are automatically erased after a time,” he adds. “And we’re just beginning to see the evolution of child exploitation with the introduction of AI and deep fakes.”
What’s more, Benner says some people don’t yet fully grasp the realities of human trafficking and child exploitation.
This is not a ‘distant problem.’ This is a ‘here and now’ problem and it’s hiding in plain sight. It’s not the white van parked near a playground – it’s happening while your child spends time on their phone or laptop, even in your own home.
As a leader in the fight against child exploitation, Maine State Police’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force has made significant changes to the investigative process, introducing innovative methods and resources, such as:
- Implementing a triage process to help detectives manage caseloads, which enabled the agency to identify and focus on the “worst of the worst” as well as identify child survivors in the state.
- Adding two Our Rescue ESD K9s, Doc and Marley, that serve dual purposes: increasing efficiency and effectiveness on search warrants and acting as a kind of therapy dog, sitting quietly and calmly with child survivors who may be answering difficult questions in the investigative stage of a case. “They are now pivotal members of the team” and in the community.
- Creating a proactive section that focuses on the undercover world, peer-to-peer distribution of CSAM, historical peer-to-peer, and live stream sexual abuse of children.
The agency’s cellular and data analysis team has assisted other agencies statewide to help locate child sex trafficking victims and Maine State Police is working with Maine’s U.S. Senators on acquiring a cell simulator aimed at increasing capabilities and accelerating results in searches for endangered children and violent offenders.
Additionally, over the past couple of years, Our Rescue has awarded 13 grants across 9 law enforcement agencies in Maine, some of which provide multiple years of assistance. These grants support initiatives ranging from investigative equipment to ESD K9s and are helping agencies increase their capabilities to investigate ICAC and human trafficking tips.
Our Rescue has produced numerous educational videos, commercials, and various guides designed to help correct the misconceptions people have about human trafficking and child exploitation. Teams of law enforcement, survivor advocates, and educators have come together to build materials parents and care givers can use to talk with their children, with ways to help them recognize warning signs and what to do if they believe they’re at risk.
Part of each field operation is ensuring the experience of survivors is taken into account – of the very people these operations aim to identify, locate, and bring to safety. Investigative equipment, education capabilities, and enhancement of various programs are thoughtfully designed to include trauma-informed and survivor-centric material. Part of that process is tapping into resources like Maine State Police’s ESD K9s that are trained not only to assist with search warrants but also to offer comfort and companionship to survivors as well as law enforcement working on a child exploitation case.
When Maine’s ESD K9 Units Engage
After ESD K9 Doc graduated from Jordan Detection K9 in June of last year, he joined fellow (2024 graduate) ESD K9 Marley with Maine State Police. Both K9s work within the Computer Crimes and Internet Crimes Against Children unit and are specially trained to locate hidden electronic storage devices as well as to provide comfort to children who may be answering questions during difficult interviews as part of a case investigation.
ESD K9 handler and Sergeant Chris Crawford works seamlessly with K9 Marley, searching and locating electronic storage devices that can be missed in human searches. Marley can alert to devices that can be several feet underwater, hidden in residences, or thrown from vehicles driving down the road. Marley has helped locate a large volume of devices containing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and a cellphone involved in active homicides. He also has “care and comfort training.” and has certain commands that signal to him that he needs to lay down and rest so that children who may be answering difficult questions about their case can lean on him as a means of comfort.
In one case, Marley was requested for assistance with investigative leads on a search related to a homicide case involving a man who strangled his girlfriend to death and fled the state. He helped search two large hayfields, an area that was larger than 200,000 square feet alongside a road. This area had previously been searched by evidence technicians. Marley located a cellphone in grass that was nearly 3 feet tall. The recovery of this cellphone was crucial to the investigation and the suspect was later apprehended out of state and returned to Maine.
Marley was recognized and received the Maine State Police Colonels award for his work with the fight against child exploitation.
Both Doc and Marley are active members of the community. Doc and his handler Corporal Christopher Smith have been present at Internet School Safety presentations to more than 320 students this quarter, where he demonstrated his search abilities and interacted with students.
ESD K9s are trained to identify the scent of TPPO, a chemical compound used to manufacture electronic storage devices like thumb drives and mobile phones. There is very little “guesswork” when Doc and Marley assist with search warrants.
When they’re “off duty,” that laser focus turns back into two Labrador Retrievers who just enjoy spending time getting pets and praise from their handlers and other members of the team. Prior to becoming ESD K9s, they were trained as therapy service dogs and so some of their down time may be spent at the side of a child survivor, quietly comforting them while they talk with investigators about their case, conversations that can be difficult.
Benner is especially proud of the growing partnership between law enforcement in his home state of Maine and the nonprofit he leads, a collaboration that has helped increase investigative capabilities, provide specialized resources, and strengthen efforts to combat child exploitation and human trafficking.
