KIRTLAND, Ohio — The Kirtland Police Department has a new crime-fighting tool that only a few departments in the entire state have: Beacon.
Beacon is the newest member of the Kirtland Police Department. The 2-year-old Labrador retriever is trained to sniff out electronics used in crimes, including crimes against children.
According to police, she is currently trained to detect an odor of triphenylphosphine oxide, which is a chemical used in pretty much every electronic device.
Criminals use electronics, phones, and computers in crimes against kids. Devices that police said are often hidden, destroyed or tossed. But crimes against children are not the only cases Beacon will be deployed on. She will be used to sniff out electronic evidence across a range of investigations.
"We are involved in using electronic evidence in pretty much every investigation on my desk," said Detective Jake Scott of the Kirtland Police Department.
The Kirtland Police Department has 13 full-time officers, six part-time officers and now one K-9. Scott is the department's lone detective and a member of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
"We are this small little town in Lake County and we're putting really horrible people in prison for significant amounts of time,” Scott said.
"Anybody that preys on a child in our community, you will not be safe where you are sitting. We will come for you," said Chief Jamey Fisher of Kirtland PD.
Internet crimes against children happen in small towns and big cities across the country. In Northern Ohio, the U.S. Attorney's Office handled 40 cases in 2024. Last year, that number rose to 68.
"This is one of these crimes where somebody could be sitting in Fairbanks, Alaska, or Key West, Florida, and reaching out on the internet [to] affect somebody in northern Ohio," said FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Andrew Kirchhoff.
The FBI is warning parents of a troubling and rapidly evolving trend in sextortion. Investigators say the threat has expanded beyond sexual exploitation.
"The sex piece isn't always necessarily tied to it. Now, we're seeing subjects that are looking to just create self-harm. They get a power trip out of getting their victims to hurt themselves, hurt their family pets, hurt their brothers and sisters," said Kirchhoff.
