VSO Now Has Electronic Detection Dog To Help Protect Children

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Daytona Beach, FL - The Volusia Sheriff's Office now has it's first-ever electronic detection dog. Detective K-9 Zen is a dream come true for Detective Chastity Burke, a member of the Volusia Sheriff’s Office Child Exploitation Unit and the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

Zen is a black Labrador Retriever trained to sniff out evidence in child exploitation cases via devices such as hard drives, thumb drives, SD cards, and cellphones. To prepare for their partnership, Burke and Zen have completed 160 hours of a Detection K9 Handler Course. Burke says Zen is "extremely smart and will be a tremendous asset to the Sheriff’s Office and assisting other agencies."

VSO acquired Zen in April with a grant by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He's Burke's first K-9 partner. She is passionate about her work to protect children and learned about how electronic K9 detection was used to investigate former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle, who was convicted of receiving and distributing child pornography in 2015. That’s when Burke’s dream to bring an electronic detection K9 to Volusia County was born. “This is going to be perfect for our agency. I know it is,” Burke said. “I’ve wanted this for so long and I’m going to do everything I can to make it best for our agency because I know we can, together. Our primary focus is to protect and save children.”

Burke is the recipient of numerous awards for her work investigating sex crimes against children, including the Kindervision law enforcement award in 2013; VSO Investigator of the Quarter, 2014; the VSO Unit Commendation Bar, 2015; Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Valley of Orlando law enforcement award, 2016; VSO’s Meritorious Service Award, 2019 and 2019 Distinguished Victim Services Award from Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody; and the 2020 Missing Children's Child Protection Award from the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood is also pleased with the addition of Zen. “The children of our community have long had a hero in Detective Burke, and now they have one in K-9 Zen, too,” the sheriff said. “Together, I know they’ll do everything they can to put predators behind bars, where they can’t victimize and traumatize any more innocent lives. This is some of the most important work we do in law enforcement, and in Volusia County, we’re fortunate to have an outstanding Child Exploitation Unit working hard every day to make a difference.”

electronic detection dog, VSO, child exploitation