Meet K9 Taylor, The ATF's New Secret Weapon

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in St. Paul is constantly tracking down crime scene evidence.

And now they have a new secret weapon to help.

It's much more than a day at the park for Taylor the lab. She is sniffing for shell casings planted in this park by ATF Special Agent Nic Garlie, her full-time handler.

It takes Taylor less than a minute to find a spent casing in a pinpointed area. And when she does, she sits.

"Anytime she finds an explosive odor and she alerts she gets a little bit of food," Garlie said.

Taylor is one of 25 ATF K9s across the country. She is specifically trained to sniff out things like spent shell casings, guns and explosives.

"She wears a badge just like our agents," Terry Henderson, ATF St. Paul Field Division Special Agent explained.

The ATF uses her for federal cases but local agencies call on Taylor too, at all hours of the night.

"She is very good at locating fired casings in homicides, drive-by shootings, aggravated assaults," Henderson explained.

Minneapolis Police needed Taylor to help after Kjersten Schladetzky and her two sons were shot and killed by their father at their family home earlier this month.

"A fired ammunition cartridge casing is very small, very difficult to locate," Henderson said.

Taylor also recovered six spent shell casings police weren't initially able to find near the home of 5-year-old Jayda Holmes who was shot in the foot by a stray bullet while she was sleeping in her bed last summer.

"It's really important to be able to tie those loose ends and account for all of the discharged casings that would be left so it was fantastic," Thad Nathan Tudor, Senior Assistant Hennepin County Attorney said.

Until Taylor gets her next call, she will train constantly.  Because this wet nose needs to stay razor-sharp to help solve the next big crime.

"ATF is going to deploy every tool we have in the toolbox and we're coming," Henderson said.

Taylor travels out of state regularly and will be helping out law enforcement at the Super Bowl in Miami.