Canine Policing: Officer’s Best Friend
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Man’s
best friend for the longest time has been the Canis familiaris
or domesticated dog. Canine’s get their name from the four fang-like teeth,
which depending on the breed can deliver a power bite. The canine has been used
for many years, mainly for hunting and gathering, protection and affectionate
companionship. However law enforcement seen it differently because many agencies
use canines ( K-9 as many termed it) for bomb detection, drug detection, police
patrol, and tracking as well as attack dogs. Many federal law enforcement agencies like the
DEA, ATF, FBI, as well as many state, local, county, and Sheriff Departments of
Policing use some type of K-9 or has some type of K-9 unit within their
department.
K-9’s
raise many concerns for the citizens, the trainers and even the breeders. When
selecting a police dog, many agencies will order through breeder/trainer
programs like worldwide canine, website found here!!! , who purchase dogs
from European breeders to ensure they are heavily pure bread. The dogs once
trained can typically be purchased between 5,000-7,500 dollars. Many of which
return that money through drug forfeiture money over time by accurately sniffing/stopping
drug couriers. These mammals are used as a crime deterrence toward the
community through programs like D.A.R.E (which we know doesn’t deter) and through
educational seminars. However during crime, and if the dog is released, we find
this highly trained animal on the loose chasing a person through a local
community. Now I support this unit of the Police, but what happens if this dog
were to falsely attack someone or bite at someone who happened to be in the
general vicinity of the chase? A by stander being bitten on accident is a
gigantic problem for policing.
Click here to watch Buffalo Grove,
Illinois wheeling canine attacks
Canines
can only be optimal if they are properly trained, and when that training
continues but also changes over the course of the K-9’s service. The U.S
Supreme Court recognized canine policing as a warrantless search tool because
the canine can readily walk the exterior of a vehicle, and if it alerts toward
any location within the vehicle, that would constitute as the officers probable
cause which leads to a full blown search of the vehicle. This current canine
policing rational was determined in Illinois
v. Caballes, 2005 which was at
first glance a fourth amendment case, but determined how an officer can utilize
a canine in a routine traffic stop, as long as that stop was legitimate and did
not prolong the duration of the stop. What happens though when a canine’s alert
was false or wrong? The Supreme Court Justices recognized those as false
positives or erroneous alerts. Many argued that in prior cases canine can be
very inaccurate where they can produce negative or false positives between 7%
and 38% of the time for particular dogs in service. My question then is do
these dogs make a reliable and effective means of stopping or deterring certain
crimes, based on the type of training they use? Or do they just take more time away from the
handling officer, because according to Worldwide Canine, an officer after the
initial training is done should commit about 35-40 hours per week of training.
Canine
policing is effective, and a very interesting area of policing. In our modern
time, bombings and other explosive devices have been used to harm other people,
but is it ethical to allow another creature to walk in and detect the bomb? If it
was to explode and harm or kill the canine would that be ok to the general
public? The agency using the dog? My issue here is how ethical is it to jeopardize
a canine’s life, I mean I understand it is better to lose a canine life compared
to a human life, but is there no better alternative say use robotics?
The use
of canines have generated many issues and also gave many ideas for future
policing, so I ask what is your take on canine policing? Is it ethical to use
dogs to hunt man? Should the dogs be readily deployed to find a ready to
explode bomb? How would one agency handle a false positive? There are a ton of
issues associated with police dogs, some raise ethical issues and some are just
fun to learn about.
What’s your take on K-9 Policing? wicked awesome attack dog video
Information based on worldwidepolicing.com
Case law review of Illinois v. Caballes, 2005
I really found your post interesting. I believe that K-9s are a great tool for law enforcement when handled properly. They are loyal and a great asset. It is a significant investment at approximately $5,000 per dog.
ReplyDeleteI think that the use of K-9 units is extremely smart. The training that these dogs go through and the way they can benefit many different agencies is extremely impressive to me. I understand the concerns that come with it and where the questions you asked come from. I do agree that it is not fair that they would put the dog in danger before an officer. Regardless, these dogs are a great tool and can do things that police officers cannot do. If you ever watch the show k-9 cops on Animal Planet it is interesting to see how the dog tracks down the criminal and apprehends them easily and genuinely seems to enjoy his/her "job".
ReplyDeleteI also think that this is very smart. I do see how a canine can be wrong, but a canine should be just a lead and then the human should then figure out if the lead is correct or not. The error of the dog should also be the error of the human officer. Very interesting topic! :)
ReplyDeleteAmanda Wilson
I enjoyed reading your post. While there are some concerns with having a K-9, I believe the benefits of having a dog outway the negatives.
ReplyDeleteDuring my time in Iraq there were several times when we had a canine unit with us while we were patroling and running operations. The dogs provided many benefits that we would have been hard pressed to replace with other means. The Dogs provided an extreme psychological edge when dealing with the locals (the locals were terrified of the dogs even though the dogs just sat there). The dogs also helped us find several caches of weapons and explosives, probably saving lives. And we loved to pet the dogs, they were a small reminder of home. I think that canines are an indespensible part of our military and law enforcement systems, taking away such an advantage would be downright stupid! Great Article.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your service Josh! :)
DeleteK-9 dogs do so much for law enforcement officers, they are a great tool to have, loyal to their masters, and they just seem to make policing fun and interesting. I just didnt know that they were that expensive. That is a shocker to me.
ReplyDeleteYour blog caught my eye at first because I saw that one of the videos you posted was from Buffalo Grove, which is my hometown. As I watched the video I was very worried about the people standing around watching, especially after one of the police officers said he hoped the dog didn’t make a mistake. This is something I never really thought about before, but now I realize that canines often make the mistake of attacking innocent bystanders, and that is just not okay.
ReplyDeleteI had never heard about that 2005 Supreme Court case until I read it here, but I am very glad to hear that they are putting limitations on the use of canines. While reading other cases that involved the use of canines for searches and seizures, I have often thought that the way the canines were utilized by the police in many situations was out of line. It should not be enough for the canine’s alert to constitute probable cause to search, the officer should have already found probable cause to search before even bringing the dog into the situation.
In regards to the post by Derick Kalec, The K-9 is probably the most impressive unit to date. Yes technology is moving so fast that new inventions arise that help subdue criminals but nothing is more effective that the K-9. My reason for saying this is dogs are very loyal and easily trained if using the Operant conditioning method. K-9s have a wonderful noise and they attack with viciousness beyond measure. Another reason I like the K-9 unit is that it doesn't put the human officer at that big of a risk.
ReplyDeleteNow Derick asked was this ethical to put the dog at risk. I would say not really but it does put the human officer at less of a risk. To the general public, if an officer is killed versus a dog, I believe the life of the human is more price worthy. This is a great post however and the fact that the dogs cost that much is extremely outrageous. To conclude this I will say that I sure would like to have a dog like that on my side.
The K-9 is a great tool for the officers, but as mentioned in the post it may infringe on our rights since the police dogs are used to detect drugs. They also intimidate people who might have drugs into confessing their illegal possession before the dog even smells the drug. As for their use in bomb detection, I think that they are the best method we have at the moment as opposed to human detection.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! A family friend of mine is a state trooper and he has a K-9 dog named Thor that searches for drugs. It is interesting that Thor can be so threatening when he discovers the drugs, but so lovable when he is not "working." I have to wonder though, you mentioned about the use of robotics. How do you think this could work? Make technology so smart that it would scan the car and be able to identify drugs or be able to smell the scent? Maybe in a few years, this could be possible.
ReplyDeleteThis blog caught my eye because I've always found the K-9 units very interesting, but I never really knew the issues associated with it. The K-9 unit seems to have been established for doing a job that humans can't accomplish as efficiently alone. (Ex- smelling drugs and detecting bombs) However, even if when the dogs are trained well they are still animals and can be unpredictable. (In the video) As of right now though, I think it is ethical to use these dogs to sniff out bombs and such since a human life is more valuable. Overall, I think that using these dogs in law enforcement has many benefits that outweigh the few negative costs.
ReplyDeleteI think canine dogs are very important to modern day policing. They do much more than just "alert" to drugs. Police dogs can deter criminals from certains action just by being there. If the dog is brought out of the car, a suspect may re-think running, and instead obey the officers. Canine police are treated fairly and are considered to be real police officers. What I mean by this, is that as it is a felony to hit/attack/injure a human officer, it too is a felony to do the same to a police dog. They are badged just as their human partners. I think that canine handlers need to be animal lovers, as we have a deeper sense of appreciation for them as a whole. I can also guarantee that the lose of a canine would effect me no less than the lose of a human partner in this case. They do what they do, for us, and we ask what we ask of them because they have greater strengths than us in certain areas. I also think it's important to mention that not all canine officers are purchased for thousands of dollars from top notch breeders. Many agencies have taken it a step further and saved dogs from death row in their local areas and converted those dogs into canine officers. People may not believe so, but dogs know when they are near death, and when they are pulled from that, the level of devotion they give to their rescuer is equal to no other. I think it's a great thing what these departments are doing.
ReplyDeleteI believe that police dogs are a great way to deal with some situations that officers have to investigate in. This Blog is interesting to me because if I were an officers I would love to be a K9 cop. I love german shepards and i love the fact that the god and the officers are so close. This K9 is also a great dog in the family. It protects them over everything. One bad thing would be that the dog is so expensive. I never realized how pricey they were but I guess I just never thought of it.
ReplyDelete