Meet Golden Barkley

Barkley Horatio Storm was born on December 15, 1990 (Sire: Lord CJ Sprayberry; Dam: Fosters Brandy Wine II) and was later purchased and trained by Detector Dogs International.

In the summer of 1993, the Spring ISD Police Department in Houston, Texas took bids for the purchase of a drug detector dog for use in the school district and to replace services being provided by a third party. At that same time, a kennel and run area was constructed at the District's Police Department facility, complete with heating, cooling, closed circuit television monitoring and an automatic food/watering system.

In August of 1993, "Barkley Horatio Storm" was delivered to the Spring Police Department to begin his duty and "employment" with the District. In the fall of 1993, a contest was conducted among the District's elementary schools to select a name for the Police Department's new drug dog. Over 5,000 entries were received and a committee of 8 persons (2 community members, 2 police officers, 2 administrators, and 2 teachers) met and read every ballot. 2 students had selected "Detective" and 4 students selected "Barkley" as an appropriate name. It was a unanimous decision that both of these names be combined into one "Detective Barkley" for the official name of the Spring ISD Police Department Drug Detection Dog. All 6 students were invited to the Police Department for an awards ceremony, photographs and each student received a $50 savings bond for being a winner in the contest.

"Detective Barkley" is scheduled to conduct a search at each high school weekly (vehicles on parking lots, lockers, and interior areas of the schools), a search at two of the four middle schools weekly, one search per week at the alternative school, and at other sites and incidents as needed. "Detective Barkley" also receives 2-4 training sessions per week. "Detective Barkley" has been trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, gunpowder and dynamite and has many alerts and prosecuted cases to his credit.

During a regularly scheduled annual re-training session in the summer of 1995 at the border crossing near Laredo while working with the U.S. Border Patrol and Mexican Police Authorities, "Detective Barkley" became very in and the training session and the vehicle was not checked because it was not in the "immediate vicinity" according to officials. The next day, however, the 18 wheeler was checked and found to be abandoned with one ton of marijuana inside. Mexican Police officials stated that they believed the occupants of the truck saw "Detective Barkley" and heard him barking, and fled the area. "Detective Barkley" was listed in their report with an "indirect find/alert" on the vehicle.

"Detective Barkley" is also utilized for demonstrations and crime prevention education programs in the classrooms as well as demonstrations and personal appearances at community functions and public relations events in the area.

For more information on "Detective Barkley" or to request him for a local (Spring, Texas area) event, please mail to Detective Barkley at Abragg501@aol.com. This information about Barkley was provided by J.M. Joey Schultea in March 1997.