When it comes to violent crime, investigators have long known that those who abuse defenseless animals often move on to hurt people.

Yet, at a time when animal cruelty crimes are on the rise, most law enforcement academies don't  train prospective officers how to investigate animal abuse cases.

In California, at least, that's about to change.

This summer, in the largest program of its kind in the United States, about 100,000 California law enforcement officers and recruits will get specialized training on how to properly handle animal cruelty cases. The training will come in the form of a video telecourse featuring Eric Sakach, The HSUS' West Coast regional office director. The Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training, which is producing the video course, invited Sakach to speak as a subject matter expert. Sakach is a law enforcement academy instructor who spent 19 years as an investigator for The HSUS.

"Sometimes officers don't treat an animal crime scene with the same sort of respect and importance that they treat other crime scenes," Sakach said. "What we hope to see as a result is better-educated police officers who not only understand the importance of preventing animal cruelty, but are willing to devote necessary time and resources to responding to those sorts of cases."

Crafting the video course was a team effort, involving The HSUS, the Los Angeles Police Department, the San Diego Sheriff's Department, the San Diego District Attorney, the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office and San Diego Animal Control.

"Most law enforcement officers, like most people, find animal cruelty abhorrent and are shocked by some of the things that go on," Sakach said. "Certainly, a person who is committing a terrible act toward an animal is someone I'm more concerned about—and members of the general public are more concerned about—than the person who is committing a non-violent crime."

The video course will be delivered to the state's 622 law enforcement agencies. The six 20-minute segments deal with the most common types of animal cruelty cases: animal hoarding, dog abandonment in hot cars, pet abuse in domestic violence cases, dogfighting, cockfighting and equine neglect.

“I think it is going to be very eye-opening for a lot of law enforcement officers,” said Michael Kurtz, who produced the videos. “It can have a huge impact statewide.”