K9s Talking Scents

Stèphan is a project manager, instructor and operational handler within the canine unit of the Dutch National Police. He started as a operational handler in the field of Forensic Human Scent Detection- and Tracking dogs, Narcotic Detection Dogs and Urban Search & Rescue. He was deployed for USAR missions after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal and the devastating explosion in Beirut (2020). As an expert in the field of detection dogs he and the project team utilized and developed a training protocol for Digital Storage Detection Dogs in the fight against cybercrime. Because cybercrime is not constrained by borders, it is very important to work together as law enforcement, training “digital detection dogs” at an international level. Sharing information in the field of training data and discussing operational cases will significantly improve the level of this specific new detection discipline. Canine teams will never replace human search teams, but even in this digital era, they are a valuable addition to the in