Kirtland Police Pair New Trauma Room With Digital Forensics Dog Beacon

Kirtland Police Department has opened a soft interview room designed to give victims, children, and people in crisis a calmer place to talk to investigators, and the department believes it is the first space of its kind in Lake County. Alongside the room, officers introduced K9 Beacon, a Black Lab who splits her time between comforting crisis victims and sniffing out hidden digital evidence in cybercrime cases.

The soft interview room opened as an unsecured, non-custodial space near the station, distinct from the locked interrogation rooms used for suspects in custody, according to how such spaces are operationally defined in Ohio court records. According to Cleveland.com, the room was made possible entirely through financial support, donations, and volunteer labor from local organizations, businesses, and residents, and Kirtland Police plan to make it available to law enforcement agencies throughout Lake County when needed.

Volunteers and Students Built the Space From Scratch

The room's detailed architectural blueprint and floor plans came from Steven Pastor, a student at the Auburn Career Institute, the vocational school serving Lake and Geauga counties. Physical construction relied on donated labor from Kirtland Kiwanis members Rich Lowery and Kent Packer, with electrical work donated by Nova Terra LLC owner James Gilchrist and interior artwork and staging donated by Mary Sams, per a Kirtland Police Department Facebook post.

Financial backing for the room came from the Kirtland Kiwanis and the Kirtland Service Council, while Synergy Salons owner Sherie Scott donated comfort items including children's books, games, and stuffed animals to fill the space. The same Facebook post frames the project as proof that community support can help police provide services that go beyond traditional law enforcement, a theme echoed in Cleveland.com's report on the opening.

A Comfort Dog With a Second, Highly Technical Job

K9 Beacon, introduced last week according to Cleveland.com, is not a typical comfort dog. As reported by Lakeshore Views & News, Beacon was obtained from the U.S. Secret Service and trained in electronic detection work, allowing her to locate hidden digital media such as submerged cellphones, flash drives, and hard drives during investigations. Kirtland Police Chief Jamey Fisher told the City Council in August 2026 that Beacon is one of only roughly five to nine police dogs in Ohio trained in this dual capacity of digital forensics and trauma comfort, the outlet reported.

Beacon is assigned to Detective Jake Scott, an investigator who specializes in child sexual abuse material, cybercrime, and human trafficking cases. Scott and Beacon completed specialized joint training together at the National Computer Forensics Institute in Alabama, a facility operated by the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a Kirtland Police Department Facebook post. Beacon is scheduled to be officially sworn in as a member of the department during the Kirtland City Council meeting on September 9.

Why the Timing Matters for Kirtland

The push for stronger digital forensics tools follows recent local cases that put a spotlight on the department's cybercrime work. In March, a 45-year-old Kirtland resident was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material following a joint investigation by Kirtland Police and federal agents, as Hoodline previously reported. Kirtland Police also brought a 32-count child sex image case in Geauga County earlier this summer, underscoring why a dog trained to sniff out hidden storage devices has become a priority for a department this size.

Kirtland Police operates with 14 total employees, a staffing ratio of about 2.0 officers per 1,000 residents compared to the Ohio statewide average of 2.7, according to data compiled by AreaVibes. That relatively lean staffing helps explain why the department is positioning both the soft interview room and K9 Beacon as shared regional resources rather than tools reserved solely for its own caseload, offering the room's use to other Lake County agencies as needed.