K-9 Liberty, a shepherd-rottweiler mix, was found as a puppy by Sergeant Carlson in 1981, abandoned by the front door of the "big M" shopping center on S. 5th St. in Springfield. Sergeant Carlson began Liberty's training when the K-9 program was approved by the City Council. In 1983, Officer Harrison took over the handling of Liberty who had obtained a Schutzhund I title and was trained in narcotics detection.

As a K-9 team, Officer Harrison and Liberty had many captures and narcotics finds. Once, early in their career as a team, K-9 Liberty was assisting in a search of a residence for narcotics. Officer Harrison had put Liberty on a kitchen counter in order for him to be able to sniff the upper cupboards. K-9 Liberty went directly to the cookie jar and knocked the lid off. Knowing that Liberty was just as adept at finding food as he was narcotics, Officer Harrison scolded him and encouraged him to search elsewhere, but Liberty kept returning to the cookie jar. Finally, realizing that he would just have to remove the jar if he was going to get Liberty to complete the search, Officer Harrison picked up the jar to move it. That's when he discovered that the jar did not contain any cookies, but instead held several ounces of marijuana.

K-9 Liberty was as equally well known for his driving skills as anything else. Once, when Officer Harrison was out of his patrol car interviewing a suspect, Liberty moved over into the driver's seat, knocked the gear shift into drive, and slowly began creeping towards the suspect and Officer Harrison. Officer Harrison, whose back was to the patrol car, realizing something was wrong when he saw the look on the suspects face, turned and saw the patrol car rapidly closing the distance between he and the suspect. Officer Harrison made a dash for the car, but was not able to reach it before it slammed into a light pole. There was another incident when K-9 Liberty was found behind the wheel of a patrol car half way up a light pole, but that's another story.

K-9 Liberty retired from service in 1989 and lived the remainder of his life with Officer Harrison and his family. He was credited with 28 captures during his career which resulted in recovered property vauled at $2,120.00.

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