New sheriff’s deputy takes a bite out of crime

Edo was practically born to be a cop. He came from Poland but was shipped as a puppy to Highland Canine Training, a North Carolina organization that trains police and service dogs.

Edo trained at Highland for about a year, and Costa attended handler school there, too, where the two met and learned to work together.

“He’s pretty laid back and chill until it’s time to work and the blue lights and the sirens come on, and then he’s a different dog,” Costa said. “He’ll just about pull me off my feet trying to sniff a car.”

Costa is a relatively new deputy, marking his third year in law enforcement this month. He started in the dispatch center, but it didn’t take long before he moved into a full-time deputy position.

“All of a sudden, 2020 hit and no one was interested in being a cop,” he said, referring to the nationwide backlash against police that many in law enforcement say arose in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and police de-funding movements.

When he first started, he shadowed then-deputy Chris Tetreault and Kubo. Tetreault is now a detective at Morristown PD and Kubo is still his partner.

Costa said a K-9 officer is a highly sought asset on plenty of incidents and specifically recalls one time during his training when a suspect took off running across a field and hid under a camp.

Not for long.

“When someone stopped a car and suspected there might be narcotics, it was, like, ‘Where’s the dog?’” Costa said. “We were always getting a piece of the action.”

Edo has been on about a half dozen deployments in his two months on the job. Some consisted of sniffing a car for suspected drugs, and there was one incident where a driver first led cops on a pursuit and then refused to comply after being caught. But as soon as Costa brought Edo out of the car, the man quickly complied.

When not on duty, the duo goes on walks on cross-country running and skiing trails in the woods and fields near Peoples Academy, and then concludes the exercise with some daily obedience practice.

Edo also likes chew toys and other favorites like any pet, but there’s a big difference: he’s not a house pet.

That means when Edo’s at home with Costa and the family, it’s important to let him go with his instincts. If he tries to jump up on the counter or the table or some other action that he’d be called for in the line of duty, Costa is likely to let him do it.

“At home, I can’t correct him for doing something I want him to learn. I can’t correct him from being a working dog.” he said.

Also, as much as he loves tennis balls, they are reserved for special occasions, such when he finds a stash of drugs.

With marijuana laws relaxing across the nation in recent years, police dogs aren’t trained to sniff out pot anymore. Edo wouldn’t react to the weed even if he came across it.

His keen nose is, however, trained to detect “the big five,” as Costa calls them — methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, PCP and MDMA, or ecstasy.

“Each odor that he’s trained to detect has its own unique chemical makeup so that he can detect that odor and that odor alone,” Costa said.

Costa and Edo recently switched back to the night shift, and the four-legged officer hasn’t acclimated to the new shift as quickly as his human.

“I always tell him during the day, ‘Now, you’ve got to take a nap, because you’re gonna be up all night,’” Costa said, laughing. “Then 2 a.m. rolls around and he’s violating department policy and taking a nap.”