By Suzie Ziegler
NEW YORK — The NYPD is upgrading its bomb-sniffing dogs to stay ahead of advances in terrorism. No, they’re not robot dogs. Instead, these four-legged officers are equipped with TREDD technology, which stands for “Transit Enhanced Detection Dog.”
TREDD is an advanced explosive detection system that enables trained K-9s to detect more substances like radiation or other biological and chemical agents that dogs’ noses can’t smell, according to FOX News. The K-9s wear a special harness equipped with electronic sensors that send information back to a mobile command post, the report said.
The NYPD created the technology and is the first agency to use TREDD, according to the report.
Lt. John Pappas, commander of Transit Bureau K-9, says he came up with the idea after realizing that terrorist groups were finding ways around the city’s anti-terror security measures, FOX News reported.
“What I found […] is that international terror organizations like al Qaeda, ISIS and many others were intentionally creating a gap in our detection capability specific to the dog,” Pappas told Fox News. "They were starting to create unconventional explosive devices, things that they knew […] these dogs cannot detect.”
Using grants, Pappas and the NYPD worked with the Blueforce Development Corporation to develop TREDD. The first version of TREDD debuted in 2015, but it has recently been fine-tuned, according to the report. Pappas said TREDD K-9s were used after a shooting in the subway on April 12.
“We had these units deployed there, and I knew exactly where they are,” Pappas told FOX News. “And I would move my pieces around to make sure that I’ve covered all the areas that needed to be swept.”
Pappas says the NYPD has shared TREDD information with the Pentagon and its other partners.
“It does us no good to hoard this when there’s a threat like this up against all of us. This isn’t just a threat to New York City,” Pappas told FOX News.
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