POCATELLO — A local Idaho State Police trooper and his K-9 companion continue to sniff out crime, working in tandem to kennel drug traffickers.
Trooper Chad Braswell and his K-9 chocolate Lab named Moose have spent the last four years together, building trust and hunting down potential drug traffickers within Southeast Idaho. The process to get to this point wasn’t always a walk in the park, with countless hours of training and time management required.
“I’ve been in law enforcement since 2001,” Braswell said. “I started with the Aberdeen Police Department, then I went to the Blackfoot Police Department in 2003. I got my first K-9 with them back in 2008 and ran a dual-purpose and a single-purpose dog for Blackfoot. I left Blackfoot in 2019 and joined the Idaho State Police and I got Moose in 2020.”
A dual-purpose police K-9 focuses on apprehension in tandem with location, whereas the single-purpose dogs focus solely on location. Generally, most K-9 units within Idaho focus as single-purpose, drug-sniffing dogs.