The National Police Agency (NPA) yesterday said that the nation’s first electronics-sniffing police dog has completed its training in the US with the assistance of US law enforcement and an anti-trafficking group.
The two-year-old back Labrador named Wafer is capable of detecting concealed electronics, including phones, USB sticks and discs, through the scent of triphenylphosphine oxide, the agency said.
Wafer would be one of the three active electronics-sniffing dogs in Asia, with the other two canines being fielded by agencies in Thailand and Malaysia.
hoto courtesy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles via CNA
It went through a gamut of courses during its two-week training wearing a collar bearing the Republic of China’s flag, the NPA said, adding that the dog is currently under quarantine in Taiwan and is expected to start its duties on Sept. 11.
Yang Li-jing (楊力靜), the NPA’s liaison officer on the US west coast, said that she saw an electronics police dog in action for the first time during a joint anti-trafficking operation with the US Homeland Security Investigations and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Impressed, Yang said that she sought out police dog training experts and was introduced to the anti-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad by the sheriff’s department.
Yang said the group has provided US police agencies with nearly 100 electronics-sniffing dogs.
After inspecting Taiwanese law enforcement’s handling and treatment of police dogs, the group was satisfied that the nation’s animal welfare standard is compatible with that of the US, and donated Wafer to the NPA, she said.
The dog underwent training from July 31 to Aug. 11 at a canine school in Indianapolis, Indiana, which it completed without incident, Yang said.
Wafer had not always been destined for police work, she said, adding that it had originally been slated for training as a seeing eye or emotional support dog, but was rejected for being overenergetic.
However, Wafer’s playful nature and obedience to commands were deemed a good fit to be a police dog, Yang said.
During training, Wafer demonstrated an ability to locate electronics hidden in closets, grass, SUV trunks, or under a rock at the bottom of a river, she said.
Yang said she and her husband named the dog Wafer in honor of Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor industry.
Police dogs in the program are often given interesting names, such as Satoshi, after the pseudonym of bitcoin’s inventor, Yang said.
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS