Law Enforcement and Dog Encounters

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Resources

• Law Enforcement Dog Encounters Training
• Dogs Shot by Cops: Companion Animals and Law Enforcement (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
• The Problem of Dog-Related Incidents and Encounters: A series of five roll-call training videos and a companion PDF booklet, created by the National Canine Research Council, Safe Humane Chicago, and the COPS Office [Enroll here]
• Police and Dog Encounters: Tactical Strategies and Effective Tools to Keep Our Communities Safe and Humane (DOJ/Office of Community Oriented Policing Services)
• Officer Safety Corner:  Dogs and the Police Response:  A Guide for Safe, Successful, and Humane Encounters [IACP Membership Required]
• PoliceOne Academy offers the following training courses:
  • Best Practices In Dangerous Canine Encounters (1 hr)
  • Law Enforcement Incidents & Encounters With Canines (2 hrs)
  • Law Enforcement Interactions With Canines (1 hr)
  • View course catalog and sign up here
• Shooting Straight: Preventing Unnecessary Dog Shootings (Article)
• Officer-Involved Shootings with Dogs (Article)
• [SPANISH LANGUAGE] Dog Encounter Handbook (Manual Básico de Intervención Policial en Incidentes con Perros)

Articles/News

• Courts are awarding significant damages to families whose dogs are killed by police (April 2018)
• 700 dogs have been shot or shot at by police in Chicago in the past decade (March 2018)
• 8th Circuit rules it was 'reasonable' for state trooper to shoot and kill loose dog on the highway (Sept. 2017)
• What Dog Shootings Reveal About American Policing (July 2017)
• How to keep your dog from being shot by police (Nov. 2015, Updated Feb. 2017)
• Is It “Reasonable” For Police to Kill Dogs in the Homes that they Search? (Jan. 2017)
• Federal Ruling on Dogs Shot by Police: Less than Meets the Eye (Dec. 2016)
• Cops are Programmed to Kill and the Growing Epidemic of Police Shooting Dogs is Proof (Aug. 2016)
• Police Kill Nearly 25 Dogs Each Day (July 2016)
• Programmed to Kill: The Growing Epidemic of Cops Shooting Dogs (July 2016)
• How some police departments are trying to prevent 'puppycide' (June 2016)
• Just a Dog (May 2016): In a nation bristling with discontent over an increasingly militarized police force, “Just A Dog” tells the intimate story of the Harris family from Hartford, CT, whose pet dog, Seven, was unjustly killed by police on the family’s private property.
• Cops Shooting at Dogs (June 2015)
• A Use-of-Force Continuum for Dealing with Dogs (Nov. 2014)
• Are police too quick on the draw against dogs? (Aug. 2013)