By Randall Lockwood

The New Year's Day shooting of the Smoak family's innocent dog, Patton, is not a rare isolated incident, but the latest example of a regular challenge that police officers face.

The sad reality is that dogs are frequently used as weapons by serious offenders, and such animals are often encountered by police in the course of their regular duties. Officers are generally granted broad powers to shoot such animals if they feel they are in "imminent danger," or if a dog has killed or is in the process of attacking livestock or other pets.

Unfortunately, police rarely receive any training that would allow them to rapidly and realistically assess the degree of danger posed by a dog; nor are they routinely trained in a wide variety of non-lethal tools and techniques available to them as an alternative to shooting.

Since more than one-third of American households have a dog, officers are likely to encounter canines whenever they approach or enter a residence. Although they may encounter truly dangerous dogs in some situations, the majority of dogs are likely to be well-behaved family pets who are legitimately protecting their homes and families from intruders.

The following are among the many incidents reported in recent years:

• December 1999, Bishop Texas: A chow mix who had been impounded for allegedly killing three pigs escaped from his cage and killed a cat. Police fired three rounds from a .25 caliber pistol. When that didn't stop the animal, they killed him with two more shots from .357 caliber gun. Police claimed they would have used a tranquilizer gun, but their supply of tranquilizers had run out the previous winter.
• December 1999, Colorado Springs, Colorado: An officer entered a back yard, mistakenly thinking the homeowner was a suspect in a car theft. When approached by the owner's 13-year-old Doberman, the officer shot the dog in the mouth. The animal survived, but required reconstructive surgery.
• January 2000, New Miami, Ohio: A sheriff's deputy who entered the wrong house on a domestic disturbance and shot the family dog was suspended without pay for one month and given additional training on communications skills, use of firearms, and search and seizure procedures.
• March 2001, San Francisco, California: Two police officers fire 30 shots to kill a pit bull after a woman was bitten while trying to separate him from her Akita. Neighbors described the shooting as "panic driven."
• June 2001, St. Paul, Minnesota: Five officers arrived at the wrong address, looking to serve a warrant on a suspected forger. When challenged by the family's female black Labrador, one officer fired at least three shots, killing the dog as the family was just getting ready to take the animal to the vet The family has filed a suit in federal court.
• August 2002, Minneapolis, Minnesota: A drug raid escalated into a riot when a bullet fired by an officer at a pit bull ricocheted and wounded an 11-year-old boy. Twenty officers were called to clear the area.
• November 2002, Detroit, Michigan: An officer was shot once in the leg by a fellow officer when they opened fire on three stray pit bulls. The officers were reportedly shooting as they ran from the dogs.
• November 2002, Sacramento, California: A 27-year-old man suffered chest wounds from ricocheting bullets fired at a pit bull by SWAT team officers who were helping serve a narcotics-related search warrant.

Most police departments require detailed reports anytime an officer discharges a firearm, even accidentally. Some of these reports reveal a disturbing trend. According to a report in The Indianapolis Star, nearly three-fourths of the shooting incidents in the city from January 2000 to September 2002 involved shots fired at dogs, with officers killing 44 dogs during that period.

Phoenix, Arizona police shot eight dogs each year in 1999 and 2000, and then shot 13 in 2001. In Seattle, Washington, there were 11 non-accidental firearms discharges by police between March 1999 and March 2000. Two of these involved fatal shootings of people; four involved dogs killed by officers.

Most instances in which police shoot dogs are avoidable. These incidents often underscore other problems, whether in policies, procedures, communication or training.

Solutions

There are many things that law enforcement agencies can do to prevent the needless killing of dogs, not to mention the high risk of injuries to officers and the general public in such instances:

• Establish better communication between law enforcement and animal care and control agencies, including the sharing of information about addresses with a history of calls for violent offenses or dangerous animals.
• Review existing policies and data on shootings and institute administrative review of all such shootings.
• Enact a Force Continuum approach for encounters with dogs, similar to that for encounters with people, which stipulates an escalating scale of options in which lethal force is considered a last resort.
• Provide officers with up-to-date equipment that can be used as an alternative to lethal force.
• Provide officers with training in identifying and assessing potentially dangerous dogs, as well as instruction on how to use their existing equipment more safely and effectively in situations with potentially dangerous dogs.

Randall Lockwood is the Vice President of Research and Educational Outreach for The HSUS.

In March 2003, Dr. Lockwood and CSRO Director Phil Snyder presented dog bite prevention training to hundreds of police officers from across the state of Tennessee. Law enforcement officials eagerly pursued the opportunity to receive instruction in the proper handling of potentially dangerous dogs, in order to avoid situations such as the one involving Patton. CSRO plans to offer additional training in the region, including the state of Kentucky, in the near future. We are hopeful that by giving law enforcement officers basic skills in assessing and handling situations involving dogs, they will be in a better position to respond appropriately. The HSUS also plans to make an online version of this training available to officers nationwide through Humane Society University.