The Ashland Police Department promoted four officers and introduced an electronic storage detection canine called Mabel at the Jan. 9 Board of Commissioners meeting. The department said the promotions and the donation aim to strengthen investigations of crimes that rely on digital evidence.

Chief representatives announced promotions to sergeant and lieutenant ranks and promoted Eric Taylor to major and field operations division commander. The department administered an oath of honor to the promoted officers in a public ceremony. The police also introduced Mabel — an ESD canine trained to detect hidden electronic storage such as micro SD cards and concealed hard drives. The department demonstrated Mabel locating a concealed micro SD card, a false-book hard drive, and a disguised SD card inside a can during the meeting.

City officials told the audience that Our Rescue (presented in the meeting as the donor organization previously known as Operation Underground Railroad) provided the canine and training. The department said the handler is Detective C.C. Porter and that the dog and handler completed more than two weeks of training before returning to Ashland in mid-November.

Separately on the consent agenda the commission adopted a municipal order authorizing the mayor to accept the donation of the ESD canine and the handler training. The resolution was approved by voice vote; the public minutes record an affirmative voice vote without a roll-call tally. Police officials said the ESD canine is only one of 172 in the world and one of approximately 110 deployed through the donor organization to law-enforcement partners.

Chiefs and presenters described the canine as a tool for investigations of child exploitation, homicides and other crimes where small concealed storage devices are commonly used as evidence. The department said the unit will augment a recently built digital forensics lab.