The Hibbing Police Department is home to a K-9 team with a special skillset, electronics detection. Officer Brittany Dillinger learned about electronics detection K-9s when she worked with the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).

“I got to meet their two electronic detection canines, Luna and Sota. And after that, I came back to my department and my chief asked me how it went, and I told him about it and I told him about the dogs that they had, and we had looked into it and found a grant through our rescue. And we were able to obtain an ESD K-9 through them,” said Officer Dillinger.

In 2022, K-9 Dottie became only the third ESD in the state of Minnesota, and the only dog not owned by the BCA.

“ESD canines, electronic detection canines are canines that we use at least at our police department to find electronic storage devices. So, the specific chemical compound that they’re trained to sniff out is tri-phenyl phosphine oxide or TPPO for short,” said Officer Dillinger.

Dottie’s skillset not only helps the Hibbing Police Department, but all of the Northland. The team travels across northern Minnesota to help agencies find hidden cameras, cell phones, computers, memory cards, and more.

“They’re super useful when we go into a house, and it can cut our search time in half. They can locate items that we missed or are hidden. So, they’re really, they’re really good resource for us,” said Dillinger.

Dottie, a six-year-old black lab, wasn’t initially set to be an ESD, but a service dog. After not completing the requirements to become a service dog, Dottie was taken in by Jordan Detection K-9, where she became paired with Officer Dillinger.

“So, she went from flunking out of service animal school to becoming a police canine. And she does really well in it,” said Officer Dillinger.

Besides electronics detection, K-9 Dottie uses her calm demeanor to help those that are in need.

“Working these hard cases, you know, and we have juvenile victims. I’ll bring her out, you know, if I have to take a statement from them and, you know, “Hey, do you like dogs?” And usually, the answer is yes. And I bring her out and just kind of calms, you know, a big scary situation that’s going on,” said Officer Dillinger.

Even when out of the uniform, Officer Dillinger and Dottie spend their time raising awareness to protect people from the crimes they fight every day.

“She’s also a good resource in just like getting the word out there about this, these types of crimes. Child exploitation or something that’s becoming more and more popular with children is sextortion. So just to have Dottie when we have to go talk to kids or just raise awareness in the community about what’s going on,” said Officer Dillinger.