When you think of police dogs and K9 units, you wouldn’t be wrong to think that these usually are rather large four-footers with an excellent sense of smell and can manage to take down suspects within the blink of an eye. K9 officers and their human partners are an absolutely essential part of police and military operations, there’s just so much that we can learn from these canines and their usefulness has been proven over and over again.

This K9 officer who is assigned to the Great Barrington Police Department in Massachusetts may look a little different.

While most police dog breeds are usually Dutch/German Shepherds or Belgian Malinoises, this four-footer who wears a badge actually looks even cuter. Meet K9 Officer Beko, who won’t be doing any search operations or get involved in dangerous situations. While his four-footer buddies in the police department are more than capable to handle the aforementioned tasks, Beko himself is more of a ‘comfort dog’.

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Beko isn’t a menacing pooch, but rather, an absolutely adorable English Labrador Retriever.

Officer Kris Balestro is the human partner of Beko, and you can just tell that these two already share a special bond together and are excited to get to work.

At the moment, Beko is only ten weeks old and is still going through training before he ‘graduates’ as a police comfort dog in the local community, but we’re pretty sure that Beko is doing an excellent job.

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Part of Beko’s job description is to respond to calls with children involved, calls that include people with mental health issues, or calls where there’s a clear need for some emotional support.

Another event where Beko can really help around, for example, is after a natural disaster when there’s plenty of loss and destruction.

Having a friendly four-footer around can actually make a lot of difference. Of course, Beko and Officer Balestro won’t always just respond to calls. They’ll also make regular visits to community events, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and senior centers to greet the members of the local community and help them feel safe. He’ll need to get his official therapy dog training before the pair can make visits to hospitals, but everything is going very smoothly so far.

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“Hi everyone, meet Officer Beko,” his partner Officer Kris Balestro proudly says in the introduction video. “Our new addition to the Great Barrington Police Force. He’s our new comfort dog in training, he’s going to go through a lot of training and you’re gonna see us driving around, stopping at a bunch of places and visit. We’re gonna be all around!”

Officer Beko is undeniably adorable and is already a beloved member of the police force.

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While some people may believe that having a labrador retriever around as an official member of the police force sounds a bit stupid, there’s actually a lot of science and reasoning behind the decision.

“People are more likely to approach a friendly dog, which gives us the chance to have a positive and productive dialog with people”, Officer Balestro mentioned.

Beko is also the very first therapy dog in Berkshire County and was donated by breeders in New Hampshire to help with a special program for therapy police dogs. It was a suggestion by Sgt. Paul Storti and also has the support of the Chief and the Town Manager of Great Barrington.

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The police department has also set up an Instagram-page for the adorable Beko, so all of us can be updated on all his exciting adventures and cute moments.

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Source: Ellen Lahr (YouTube), k9bekogbpd (Instagram), WWLP