POST FALLS — Uno the Post Falls K-9 started his week by assisting Coeur d’Alene police in his capacity as an electronics-sniffing dog.  

However, on Tuesday, he became the focal point at the Starbucks on Beck Road.

Dan Wilson and his wife, Sue Wilson, stopped by the coffee shop to visit their granddaughter where she works, but they stayed to learn about more about their new four-legged friend. 

“I got greeted at the door by him, Uno is his name,” Dan said.  

The Wilsons were surprised to learn the ins and outs of how the 3-year-old yellow lab helps law enforcement find electronic devices related to child sexual abuse.  

“I understand why it was important to sniff out electronics,” Dan said. “Apparently, there’s only about 200 of these dogs.”  

Uno is the only dog in North Idaho with electronic detection capabilities and came to the Post Falls Police Department through a program offered by the U.S. Secret Service National Computer Forensics Institute, which covered the cost of dog training.   

Uno’s human partner, Detective Jason Cope, handled the conversation on behalf of the team. 

When doing community engagement events like the one Tuesday, Cope said the main question people pose is what is an electronic storage detection canine?   

Uno helps police discover hidden hard drives, USB drives and memory cards with illicit materials, usually tied to child sexual abuse. 

“It’s amazing the things he’s able to find,” Cope said of Uno’s abilities. 

Post Falls Police Department is part of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.  

There are only three ICAC investigators in the North Idaho area and they assist each other on cases regularly. Last year, Post Falls Detective Jeremy McMillen handled 20 ICAC investigations and conducted 32 forensic exams on phones and computers. 

Through these investigations, McMillen analyzed 13,225 gigabytes of data to search for illegal materials. 

Cope works as a computer forensics investigator in the department’s cyber lab. He said the pair are asked to respond to regional search warrants every couple of weeks. 

He said the seriousness of the crimes the team pursues doesn’t stop Uno from being a regular dog when he’s off duty.   

“He loves his work and when he takes the vest off, he’s a normal dog. When he’s at work, sometimes people will come down and say hi to him if they had a rough day,” Cope said.    

    Uno the electronics-sniffing K-9 was the star of the Coffee with a Cop event for Post Falls Police on Tuesday morning at Starbucks on Beck Road.