REGARDLESS of the crime the gentleman was ACCUSED and / or SUSPECTED of committing at the time, remember… “Innocent until PROVEN Guilty in a Court of Law”.

Or do we want “Judge Dread” on patrol?

Let’s hope YOU didn’t happen to have, say, a Ham Sandwich or a Cat on your lap preceding your interaction (or merely passing by) with a K9 Dog.

But hey… These things happen! Right?

A shotgun, unlike a dog, has a safety. If it is engaged, it wont discharge. Period.
A simple rule: If you dont have it loaded, it wont go off. Period.

A dog has no 100% safety. A dog is always LOADED.

Not disparaging the PD. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, dogs (except for maybe the blond mace carrying kind from Hawaii) are an invaluable tool. They save lives of the public and of the officers them selves.
But just like humans have human nature, animals have an animal nature.
My point is simply we must be realistic that this stuff will happen eventually. Therefore the calls to fire the officer, disband the PD, and dismantle the Police K9 program are unrealistic, and unwarranted. Come up with some solid, realistic changes, then that would be worth reading.

The calls that this was blantent negligence is unwarranted with the current published facts (that may change as time goes on)

So many here think everything is a conspiracy, everything is brutality, and anyone who is in office, or wears a badge, or a uniform… MUST be corrupt and abusive. Simply not true.

Mainly people who wont, cant, or simply dont have the desire to do the job of those who serve the public….. but feel free to criticize that which they know next to nothing about, or worse than nothing (by watching TV).
Abuses do occur, trust is violated, but generally speaking not at any greater rate than the general population (often less IMHO).

So before we shoot the dog, before we tar and feather the officer, before we put the CRIMINAL on a pedestal and call him a martyr, why dont we do something useful, like try to identify if there was a problem (specificaly), then fix the problem, instead of tearing down the PD like a bunch of petulant children.

Just calling for a bit of objectivity.

But hey, if playing arm chair quarterback makes you feel better about yourself, go for it. But while you are doing so, I am sure there are tons of internet resources about proper police use of K9s you could research and form an informed opinion before you lash out. Maybe you could reference them for us. Or , even better yet, after educating yourself, you could call the ombudsman and offer to be a civilian rider with the K9 unit, see for yourself as an educated outsider what they do and how they do it, and then you would have good opinions , maybe even some constructive ones that might improve things. I bet the ombudsman would even listen to you about them. I myself would be interested…..

But that would require you to get out of your armchair.

That dog is a weapon just like a shotgun. The cops themselves said the dog got out of the open door of a police car. I hope they are not as careless with their guns. You, Nemo sound like you think “S—” happened at that prison in Iraq too.

How can you in any way defend a dog even being near someone who is handcuffed and leaning against a car as ordered? You make me sick!

I have had first hand experience with Police style dogs (Many many variants out there and I don’t proclaim to be an expert…but I know people who are)

These animals are indeed an invaluable resource to the PD and the public. They go places officers cant, or shouldn’t anyway, they have capabilities officers don’t, and most importantly IMHO, they have an intimidation factor on bad guys that no human being can have, gun or not.

There is something primal in most of us, that even the influence of drugs often cant subdue, that promotes a fear of the dog in its aggressive stance. And that leads to compliance in a situation where otherwise a subject would need to be be shot, or a taser would be ineffective or unpractical.

They fill a role and a capability no other tool does.

But at the end of the day, these “tools” are animals. And that means a bit unpredictable. I would say more predictable than their human counterparts, but there is an element of randomness.

Sad to say it, occasionally S**t happens.

Doesnt imply negligence, just bad luck. Thats reality.

We must hold our PD to high standards, certainly higher than the public. But they must be realistic.

I explained to my neighbor that if their dog should knock down some little frail person, and that person sustains a hip fracture, they can expect to pay a lot of money, especially if that person should die.

The police department is not acting responsibly by not training or restraining their dogs and the city attorney should probably review their insurance coverage for dog injuries. It is hard to believe the dog is still in employment.

I hope he gets his million dollars and an apology and the police department learns a hard lesson about its use of animals.

What’s next, tactical nuclear weapons?