By action of the Altus School Board on Jan. 16, Harley's commission was transferred to the Jackson County Sheriff's Department after about three years with the Altus Police Department. He joined the Sheriff's Office the day after Christmas, and his jurisdiction is countywide.
His is a tale of two municipalities.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Sheriff's Office and the Altus Public School District, effective Feb. 1, calls for Harley, along with his new handler, Sheriff's Deputy Joe Everhart, to put in a minimum of four hours a day in the school district performing routine sweeps of school property as requested by the district. The team will be rotating to any and all buildings in the system. Absent a specific request from the district stating date, time and location, Everhart will decide when and where to sweep.
The district will pay half of Everhart's salary, prorated for nine months to $12,600, and provide food, supplies and veterinary services as well as a mortality insurance policy for Harley that runs about $1,000 a year. It will also cover training expenses, if needed.
The Sheriff's Office will provide the handler, Everhart, and cover costs for Harley's care and shelter. It will also provide the vehicle, fuel and vehicle maintenance and Everhart will offer additional support, when possible, as a truancy officer.
The two parties will share costs for general liability insurance.
John Redelsperger, director of related services for the school district, explained that around the fall of 2002, Altus Police Chief Mike Patterson came to the district expressing an interest in a cooperative venture between the city and the district to share a drug dog. At the time, Redelsperger said, the city did not have the budget to afford the joint venture.
The district had been working with the security firm Interquest of Oklahoma, based in Tulsa, to bring that company's dog in to sniff out drugs and nitrates at the schools. Those unannounced inspections cost the district $400 a visit and could be afforded only once a month.
The contract then made between the city and the school district paved the way for Harley to come to Altus at the beginning of 2003. The district would provide the dog and pay the insurance; the K-9 team would be at the schools for a minimum of two hours a day and the city would cover training costs, lodging, meals and veterinary services for Harley.
The district bought Harley, then 2 1/2 years old, for about $4,700 and sent him to school for another $2,300 or so. Police Officer Tony Lee had the privilege to work with and bond with the dog and the program in the schools began in earnest in the fall of 2003.
And, Redelsperger said, “It really began to fall apart in the fall of '06.”
For three years, Lee and Harley pawed through the school halls for two hours a day and worked the rest of their shift on the streets of Altus. Not just another good nose, Harley was also the police department's P.R. dog, a community liaison, prominent about town.
In the fall of 2006, Lee found himself in a personal situation that required his being moved to the night shift, and the city sent Harley with the handler.
What good, asked Redelsperger, would Harley and Lee do for the district on a night shift? “We don't want our dog on a night shift,” he said, adding that by changing Harley's working hours, the city had broken its agreement.
“It put the school without a dog or a handler without any notificaton and it definately was not in the best interest of Altus Public Schools,” Redelsperger said.
Don Wills, chief of the district's campus police, said that by making the change the city had infringed upon the contract and the district's right of ownership of Harley. The city, Wills said, “felt like it was their right” to hold the dog until the parties could get together and negotiate the matter.
Mike Howeth, assistant to the chief of police, said the department had in no way questioned the district's right of ownership, but he felt that the dog and handler should stay together. “It wasn't a thing that we wanted to do but we needed to do,” Howeth said, adding that when he called Redelsperger to inform him of the shift change, the school's director of related services had already heard the news.
Howeth explained that the police department offered a solution to the problem with a dog named Fred, also a golden Lab. Fred retired from the Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite at 9 years old and the police department inherited him in early 2005. “I know he was up there in age when we got him,” Howeth said.
Redelsperger, who already owned a young Lab named Harley on behalf of the school district, was not impressed with the offer of Fred. “He's pretty much done his duty,” Redelsperger said.
Then came Wills' recommendation to the school board to make Harley into a sheriff's dog. The loggerheads over Harley, Wills said, “just forced the schools into doing what they needed to do.”
The four campus police officers on duty with the school district are called school resources officers, Wills explained, and they work under the umbrella of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department.
Harley moved out of the Lees' back yard and was placed with Everhart, who has been working with dogs since 1997 and is the former police chief of Eldorado. Another 90 days of training for Harley, and Everhart had him “on the ground” for his new stint with the Sheriff's Office, he said..
Everhart and Harley have become very close. On Jan. 19, the pair were certified as a team by a representative of the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training with the Lawton Police Department, and Harley is good to go, licensed to sniff out cocaine, marijuana, hashish, methamphetamine and heroin. He is also adept at tracking and article searches.
Although the police department has bid adieu to Harley, it has recently acquired two new dogs, both German shepherds, through a government program that provides the dogs to police departments, at no cost to the city, via Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. The rigorous training program at Lackland, Howeth said, is merciless to dogs that fail the slightest command. But with a couple weeks training, the two shepherds - one a bomb sniffing dog, the other a narcotics dog - are now on duty.
“For the most part, I think it was a win scenario for both sides,” Howeth said.
Jackson County Sheriff Morris Roberts is pleased with the new arrangement as well. “It gives us a dog year-round,” Roberts said.
“I am excited to work with them,” Redelsperger said, but added for his part, “It is good for the Sheriff's Department, but it really put the school out because we had to scramble and come up with a whole new program which has put a considerable amount of extra expenses on the school system.”
For the school district, he said, priority for Harley's special skills will be directed at the high school and junior high, but you can expect to see the K-9 team wherever students attend classes.
Students will be familiar with Harley. He will be a part of their education. “It's just they know they're going to see that dog at every level of school they go in,” Redelsperger said.
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