Keith Hutcheson said he often thinks of the day when, while driving part-time for Chad Little's NASCAR team, he was given a choice - drive a truck east to Florida or drive one west to Washington.

Hutcheson chose to drive west.

"It's the best choice I ever made in my life," Hutcheson said.

While driving on Interstate 90 through Kootenai County, Hutcheson said he immediately fell in love with the area. When he returned home to Annapolis, Md., he told his wife of one year, Lisa, that they were going to move to Idaho. On Jan. 6 of 1996, the couple did just that and moved to Post Falls.

Prior to the move, Hutcheson's full-time job was as a firefighter. With no job openings at any of the local fire departments, and a desire to continue being a public servant, he chose to enter law enforcement as a deputy with the Benewah County Sheriff's Office.

When he started working for the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office as a deputy in 1998, he moved up from deputy to detective.

And finally, what he calls "the big thing" - working as a K-9 deputy.

"I love dogs, I admire watching them work," Hutcheson said. "Dogs are the most honest things out there, they're incapable of lying."

For six years he worked alongside his K-9 counterpart, Baron. When the animal ruptured a disc in its back in 2005 taking a suspect out of an attic, Hutcheson found himself filling the empty position of Chief of the Coeur d'Alene Tribal Police.

"At the time I was just looking for that different avenue," Hutcheson said.

In 2011, Hutcheson found another avenue when he decided to run for Kootenai County Sheriff. He lost the election, but Hutcheson said he doesn't regret the decision to run at all.

"Everything happens for a reason," Hutcheson said. "I did the best I could and didn't burn bridges or mudsling or anything like that. I just wanted to give it my best shot."

After the election, Hutcheson ran into a recruiter for AMK9, a company that sends explosive-detecting dogs around the world. He signed a contract with the company and began training to work with the dogs shortly after.

At the end of February, Hutcheson returned from Camp Condor in Baghdad, Iraq, after a year of working at a vehicle checkpoint at the Baghdad Embassy with a dog named Daggy. Last week, he began his new job as the Chief of Police for the Spirit Lake Police Department.

What is the biggest thing you gained from your experience in Iraq?

Ninety-nine percent of the people I met over there were the nicest people in the world to me. The Iraqi people are very jovial, very nice people. You don't talk about religion or politics, you don't do it. But most of the time it was a lot of smiling and joke playing. It was about figuring each other's culture out.

I learned a lot about the talking part, how important it is to communicate with people and let them know why we are doing what we're doing.

Did you have any close calls?

Saying close calls, like where a bomb went off right across the street from us, no. But a block or two away? Sure. You feel the vibration and a little bit of the shockwave. But you always had the shootings and could hear the bullets landing in the neighborhood next to you.

At the checkpoint where I worked, we searched about 13,000 vehicles last year. And I was one of five dog teams working with it. We were one of the busier checkpoints so it all comes down to the dogs. I got a young dog who was pretty green when we started, but I trained him. He just turned two and to bring him back here would just kill him because he's constantly moving.

He probably lives for that? For that action?

Oh yeah, he lived to search cars. When you do that everything is tight and you're around a lot of people with guns. They got to get really acclimated to that scenario. They either have good nerves or they don't.

Daggy made my life a little easier over there. In the room he was really cuddly with you, but when he got to work he was very independent and did his job. I totally trusted him with my life.

Was it tough to get used to the work, or can you even get used to that?

You can get used to it, but the hardest part is coming back here because you desensitize yourself to it. Back here I drive a little bit slower, I'm a little bit more observant because you just have to watch when you're over there.

That's why when I came back I took a couple of weeks off before I started here. Just to get back into a routine and dealing with regular things and issues.

I've done a little international traveling myself and there's always that point where you start thinking about that first meal you're going to have when you get back to America. What was your first meal?

Nosworthy's on Government Way. It's a good burger. I missed Nosworthy's and I love the burgers there.

How are you settling into the new job?

Every day something new comes up and it's just figuring out a way to make things better for your community. I don't want it to sound like a sales pitch, but I really mean it, I want us to do what we can to make things better for people in the community.

Are we going to have ups and downs? Sure, it's not all roses, and I can guarantee I will make mistakes. As long as I don't make them twice.

What's your favorite thing about being the chief of police in Spirit Lake?

It's a good place to come home to, it's a great place to come back from overseas and work at. The personalities are really great here.

I used to come up here all the time when I was a K-9 and I really liked it. The people were always really, super-nice to me. Spirit Lake was just a great fit for me for where I'm at in life. I'm honored and humbled to be here.

Do you have any goals for the department?

My personal goals are just to advance the department and keep moving it forward. I don't want to re-create the wheel. If the wheel's moving forward, let's keep moving forward and if it's flat, let's fix it.

My ultimate goal is to get the trust of the community so that when someone walks through the door they know that the police department is going to do its job. I know that won't happen overnight and that takes time.

I want to make a difference and so do the guys that work for the department. We didn't get into this business to get rich.

What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about police officers?

That they don't care. They do care. They aren't getting rich off of this and they all go home and put their pants on the same way you do. They go home to their families and you'd be surprised - you have the ones that you think are the biggest hard-asses and they're the ones that care the most.

Personally, I think if you're in this position and you don't care, you shouldn't be doing this job.

They care a lot, especially the Spirit Lake guys. They aren't paid like the county or Coeur d'Alene. They care about the community and they want the best from everybody.

What's something that people wouldn't know about you?

I love the ocean. Anytime I get a chance to swim in the ocean I do. Just the sound, the feel, everything about it. It kind of heals you.