Qatar has become the first Arab country to set up a body odor bank to help police dogs track criminals.

The bank is located within the Ministry of Interior’s new Police Canine Department, which opened on Tuesday. 

Qatar is among only a handful of countries, including China, to store body odor in its bid to fight crime.

The Peninsula reports:

The smell left by criminals at the scene of crime has been collected to match them with stored samples of the body odour of criminals who have already been caught. Well-trained police dogs are used for matching the smell.

Special smell-absorbing material including carbon pieces or yarns, are used to collect the samples. After “soaking” up scents, they are sealed in special bottles frozen at -18 degree Celsius in the scent bank, according to experts.

The technology is still in the developing stage and research is on to develop methods to effectively store the scents for longer periods and improve the performance of the police dogs in matching the samples.

Sounds very high-tech, no?