Latah sheriff ‘deputizes’ K9 unit

The Latah County Sheriff’s Office can now get an assist from Moscow Police’s drug-sniffing dog during traffic stops if necessary.

Sheriff Richie Skiles “deputized” K9 Ragnar recently to commemorate a partnership between the Sheriff’s Office and the Moscow Police Department.

“It’s just another tool at our disposal,” said Sheriff’s Capt. Shane Anderson.

Anderson said Ragnar still belongs to the city, but the Sheriff’s Office can call on it for drug searches in greater Latah County if it is available.

Ragnar has been with the Moscow Police Department since 2022.

Anderson said it is still the Sheriff’s Office goal to have a K9 of its own in the future. He said the area has seen a huge increase in fentanyl use and overdoses in recent years and a K9 would provide them a tool to address the problem.

“They’re mixing it into heroin and meth and other things, which makes it a lot more potent,” he said.

During a February community presentation in Troy, Skiles said he would like to have more staff members so his department can be proactive in preventing the rise in fentanyl in the community instead of “just going from call to call.”

Anderson said that before the Sheriff’s Office can employ its own K9, it must sort out the implications of a recent Idaho Supreme Court ruling that a police drug sniffing dog trespassed and conducted an illegal search by putting its paws on a Mountain Home man’s vehicle.

According to an Oct. 11 Idaho Statesman report, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to weigh in on this case, which means the Idaho Supreme Court’s ruling will stand.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.