STAR, Idaho — K-9 Luna works alongside Officer Samuel Goldstein, a canine handler with Star Police's Problem Oriented Police (POP) team, as the city's only police dog since joining the department in Fall 2024.
"She gets recognized all around the city," said Samuel Goldstein, Star Police POP Team/K-9 handler.
WATCH | In training, Luna’s drug-detection skills are put to the test—
The idea for Star's first canine came from the mayor and former Chief Zach Hessing, who is now a deputy chief. Goldstein was selected as the canine handler and traveled to Pacific Coast Canine in Washington to choose Luna from eight potential dogs.
"Out of those eight dogs, Luna was the one that we felt was the best, showed the behaviors that we wanted. And ultimately they let me pick the dog, and I picked her and then brought her home and started training," Goldstein said.
Luna is trained to detect four different drug odors that help keep illegal substances off the streets.
"Marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin," Goldstein said. "Her job is to be deployed, and if there's drugs, she lets me know."
Luna's typical day starts on patrol, riding in her own compartment in Goldstein's patrol car. At the station, she socializes with officers and takes breaks to play fetch. Afternoons often include community visits, including trips to the middle school to meet students.
Beyond drug detection, Luna serves as a bridge between the police and the community.
"It's kind of an awesome tool, and she's multifaceted in that aspect," Goldstein said. "We look scary. We got these big old uniforms, so we use her a lot to kind of bridge that gap and connect with the community."
Training remains just as important as community connections. Goldstein demonstrated how he uses real, measured marijuana during training sessions to keep Luna's skills sharp.
"We can put it under there so she can't get to it, but she'll still be able to smell it," Goldstein explained while hiding the training material. "In the real world, when people have stuff hidden in their car and places, it's not like it was just dropped there. So you gotta kinda let it sit for a little bit."
Once Luna detects an odor by showing a behavior change, Goldstein can use her alert as probable cause to search.
"If she gets the odor of narcotics, she'll start showing what we call a change of behavior. So that's what the Supreme Court has deemed that change of behavior allows us to say, hey, yes, based on my training and experience with my dog, there's a narcotics odor," Goldstein said.
Idaho law requires canine teams to undergo a 160-hour training course and regular re-certification with strict pass-or-fail standards.
"It's a 160-hour class that we have to do, and then you get certified, so it's every 14-15 months. And that's constant, and they're all different aspects of that certification, and then it's 100% pass or fail," Goldstein said.
"It's good because the expectation and the standards are set high because we're going out there, we're sniffing people's cars," Goldstein said. "Essentially, she alerts, we're now able to search their car and kind of get around the Fourth Amendment."
Whether she's tracking down drugs or playing fetch, Luna is part of Goldstein's home life too, heading home with the officer each night.
"Once our day is done, we'll go home. She'll get food, which she's very excited because we have a heat alarm in our car. So as soon as I turn it off, she knows the day's over, and she gets all ramped up," Goldstein said. "She'll usually play in the backyard, and we'll play fetch, and she'll play with my kids for a little bit, and then most of the time is in a kennel, so I don't give her free range to run around completely, but she still hangs out and is a part of the family."
Luna has already made a memorable impact in the community, including helping with a missing child case in Eagle.
"They had a missing special needs child in Eagle. I just happened to be driving through. The deputies ended up locating her at a park which was a pretty good distance away from the car she ran from, and didn't want anything to do with us, but as soon as they asked if they wanted to see the dog, she was more than willing to come with us and came running up, so she got to meet Luna and pet Luna, and then we were able to reunite her with her grandmother," Goldstein said.
The K-9 team serves multiple roles in community engagement beyond law enforcement duties.
"People wanna meet police dogs or have us over for homeschool groups, and we go and do that kind of stuff," Goldstein said. "We're here to help the community and serve the community, and so that comes in many different forms."
The department distributes stickers to children and maintains an active social media presence to keep the community updated on Luna's activities.
"Star Police does a really good job of posting kind of what's going on, what's new and happening in the city, and then obviously what Luna's doing," Goldstein said.
The K-9 duo will soon represent Star at the Idaho Police Officers Canine Association Conference in June, marking their first year competing against other canines from around the state.
"This will be our first year getting to go and compete against all other canines from around the state," Goldstein said.
