JCPD release
K-9 Barney is retiring from active duty with the Junction City Police Department. Barney came from Code 2 K-9 Services in Omaha, Nebraska, where he was born. Barney was born Oct. 3,2011 and has served the citizens of Junction City for approximately 11 years. He spent his entire career with his handler, Officer Nick Blake. Barney will turn 13 years of age on Halloween of this year.
Police said that Barney has received multiple awards in his career from the Heart of America Police Dog Association which include numerous narcotics cases of the year awards, detector dog awards, and a patrol dog award. Barney has been deployed hundreds of times in his career for drug sniffs, tracks, search warrants, school sniffs, barricaded subjects, pursuits, public demonstrations, and school classroom visits. Barney is responsible for getting thousands of pounds of marijuana, hundreds of pounds of cocaine, hundreds of pounds of heroin, hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and millions of dollars of drug money off the streets. These seizures have resulted in many years of prison time for the offenders.
One of our favorite memories is when Barney located a suspect hiding in a field as a backup K-9. Barney was waiting on the other side of a tree line while another K-9 unit started to track the suspect from his last known location. While waiting, Barney pulled his handler to a nearby thicket where the suspect was found hiding. The suspect was taken into custody without further incident.
Barney will now live the rest of his life at home with Officer Blake and his family.
There will be a retirement reception Sept. 6 from 2-3 p.m. at the Junction City Police Department Training Room.