SILVER SPRING, MD – One of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning
Commission’s most beloved K9 workers died July 30 after a career marked by
close to 900 crime-fighting and emergency rescue operations.
Stryker, who served the M-NCPPC Park Police, Montgomery
County Division, from 1997 until his retirement in 2004, had worked all over
the mid-Atlantic, including the Pentagon following the 9-11 plane crash. There,
Stryker, working with his handler, Park Police Officer Alice Hanan, made 108
finds in the disaster’s aftermath.
“Stryker was an incredible K9 partner and I am honored and
thankful for our time together,” Hanan said. “He had the best life possible for
a dog and I am pretty sure he knew that. Thanks to everyone who helped us along
the way.”
Stryker, one of four former K9 members of the Park Police’s
Montgomery County division, had been trained in obedience, agility, tracking, trailing, and search
and rescue. His partnership with Hanan is considered one of the commission’s
most effective. The dog participated in investigations leading to 113 narcotics
arrests totaling $152,923 in value of drugs seized. He also was credited with
helping find two missing persons and took part in more than 100 public
demonstrations.
From Vermont to South Carolina, Stryker assisted in
several high-profile cases such as missing persons Michelle Dorr, Susan
Stottmeister and Chandra Levy; the 9-11 attack on the Pentagon, a high-profile
gas tanker accident on I-95 and the water taxi accident in Baltimore Harbor in
2004.
In addition to being named the Park Police K9 team of the
year four years in a row – from 1999 to 2002 – Stryker and Hanan received
numerous other accolades and commendations.