Sterling K9 Brinkley wins $3,000 in online grant contest, comes in third nationwide

STERLING – Third place ain’t nothing to sniff at.

Brinkley, Sterling police’s 2-year-old comfort dog, placed third in the online voter-driven Aftermath national grant competition, winning $3,000 for its community partnership fund.

The fund sponsors events that Brinkley appears in, such as the Citizen’s Police Academy.

Tekla Martin, community service officer and Brinkley’s handler, utilized an active social media campaign through the Brinkley Sterling Facebook page to help get out the vote, and made visits to schools.

“It was a great effort, and we’re super pleased with it,” Martin said.

Last year, Brinkley finished 16th out of nearly 2,500 departments.

The golden retriever came to the department as a puppy in 2017 and now averages 100 meetings and events a year.

More than 484,000 votes were cast among the nominees, and the popularity of the contest led the Aurora-based Aftermath to increase the grant payout from $16,500 to $22,000.

The Coos County Sheriff’s K9 unit from Coquille, Oregon was the $5,000 first-place winner, and the Carbondale, Pennsylvania Police Department took second for $4,000.

Brinkley was as high as second place in the last half of the contest, with the Aurora Police Department in the lead at that time. Aurora wound up in fifth place for $1,500.

The Morrison Police Department also participated in hopes to establish a K9 unit.