Puma is specially trained to detect something more elusive than drugs, cash, firearms or explosives. His nose is honed to pick up the faintest scent of hidden technology.

His mission is to find anything from memory cards to cryptocurrency devices that could hold crucial evidence. As the first technology detection dog (TDD) in New Zealand Police, Puma represents a major leap forward in the organisation’s capabilities.

“He's an absolute machine,” says his Auckland handler, Senior Constable Zoe Eginton. “I'm constantly blown away by what this dog can do.”

Zoe travelled to Australia just over a year ago for her TDD handler training with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), which had Puma ready and waiting.

“I was a bit of a sceptic [about dogs being able to sniff out technology] at first. All through training with AFP, I thought, ‘This is just witchcraft, I don't know how this is going to work’.”

But Zoe’s doubts were quickly dispelled. She says Puma has an incredible ability to focus in on the smallest of items. She uses the example of a tub of 1000 pieces of Lego with a USB stick disguised as one of them. To human eyes, it would be near impossible to pick out. But Puma would easily find it.

“The benefit of the dog is that he's not searching with his eyes, he’s searching with his nose.”

Puma’s methodical approach to searches is a far cry from the rapid, high-energy searches Zoe is used to with her other Police dog, Villa, who can detect cash, firearms and drugs.

“It is pretty much the complete opposite. As a drug dog handler, you go in first and you don’t go moving anything. So if an area isn’t accessible to the dog, then you just leave that. Whereas with the tech dog, you go in after a hand search and because you’re looking for things that are tiny, you are removing drawers, placing them on the ground and getting the dog to search the drawer. You basically deconstruct a room and present everything to the dog.”

This precision is crucial, as tech-savvy criminals become increasingly adept at concealing digital evidence. “People are getting really ingenious,” says Zoe. “For example, they’ll take a standard charging cable, remove the USB end, and put a storage device in its place so it just looks like a normal cable.”

Puma’s first significant find was during the “Baby Ru” investigation in Wellington. After a team of investigators narrowed down where best to search for items crucial to the case, Puma put his nose to work.

The black labrador led Zoe through creeks and blackberry bushes to a dirt-smothered, plastic faceplate. Zoe was astounded. “It had very little technology in it, maybe just a chip for an infrared light.”

The seemingly insignificant find led detectives to where the much sought-after evidence was likely to be and, sure enough, it was. National Organised Crime Group (NOCG) director Detective Superintendent Greg Williams says the officer in charge of the case, Nick Pritchard, told him that it probably wouldn’t have been found if it wasn’t for Puma and Zoe’s skills.

“Nick was excited to have this new resource available. That success in itself justifies the expenditure and value of this resource.”

Puma has impressed on other cases, locating everything from cryptocurrency devices to hidden translation tools that could contain valuable intelligence. He recently found a crypto wallet that was missed during an initial search. Zoe had double success on the day – Villa found about $80,000 in hidden cash. “The suspect is believed to have access to $500,000, so here's hoping the crypto wallet yields a good result.”

The technical stuff

Puppies who might be future TDDs are assessed around eight weeks old for the right traits such as high drive, endurance, tolerance and intelligence and good decision-making skills.

Not only do they need to be able to go harder, for longer and be fastidious, they must also show they can quickly learn to discern specific odours in a clutter of similar plastic and metal devices – in other words, find a needle in a needle stack.

Once a puppy passes the grade, “we’re looking at 10 months before [a TDD dog] is ready”, says Zoe.

She knows all about rigorous selection processes. Zoe was put through her paces and more before finding out she was the “chosen one” as Police’s first TDD handler, says Inspector Todd Southall, the national co-ordinator for NZ Police dogs.

The process to secure Puma and get TDD capability for New Zealand across the line started about three years ago. While in Brisbane, Todd saw the impressive results the AFP and Queensland Police were having with TDDs.

After a few more trans-Tasman discussions, the AFP was keen to supply a dog and training at no cost. NOCG agreed to fund any extras. Greg says it didn’t take much to offer support for the pilot.

“We are having to adapt rapidly to have effective tools to find these electronic devices that offenders, quite frankly, don’t want us to find. They are being used to enable a wide range of crimes. Experience tells us that these devices hold crucial evidence that can often be the game changer for investigations.”

Awareness of Puma’s super sensory skills is vital to the success of the TDD pilot. Todd says Police will review the capability in the new year and make a call on training further TDD teams.

In the meantime, Zoe is constantly on the lookout for new training venues and opportunities to showcase Puma’s capabilities. She is confident that the more investigators use his expertise, the more news will spread of his value.

“I would love to see more and more people using him. He really can make such a difference to a case.”