KPTV - FOX 12Oregon detection dog "sniffs out" cell phones behind bars

Prisons across the country are on guard for a new threat inside prisons -- smuggled cell phones.

But the Oregon Department of Corrections has a secret weapon specially trained to find cell phones -- a cell phone-sniffing dog, appropriately named, "Sprint."

Prison officials say inmates with contraband cell phones behind bars are extremely dangerous. They say a cell phone can be a lethal weapon in an inmate's hands, an unmonitored link to the outside world.

"They can set up drops, they can set up hits," said Inspector Mack Reid, Sprint's handler. "They can continue their criminal behavior."

Sprint and Reid travel to prisons across the state, hunting for contraband cell phones and drugs.

Several states are now using specially trained detection dogs, like Sprint, to track down smuggled cell phones. Thousands of cell phones have been confiscated from prisons around the country. Inmates are sneaking them in and, in some cases, hiding them in body cavities. Even notorious killer Charles Manson has been caught twice with banned cell phones.

Reid gave FOX 12 a demonstration of Sprint's skills at the Santiam Correctional Institution in Salem. FOX 12's cameras followed along as the team searched for cell phones.

Within seconds, Sprint honed in on the scent of a cell phone that Reid hid under an inmate's pillow.

"High-end electronics have a unique odor," Reid said. "He's not listening for sound, it's not anything else. It's all odor based."

Sprint has yet to locate an inmate-smuggled phone, but Reid says it's only a matter of time.

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