The Regina Police Service are reviewing an incident where a man was accidentally bit by a police dog in training Tuesday evening.
The K-9 Unit was performing a routine tracking exercise in the 1700 block of Arthur Street on Tuesday, when the dog went off-track and bit a 56-year-old man on the leg, pulling him off the front step of his home, where we was sitting.
Police say the dog was on a 10-foot long leash.
Police also say the officer was on-scene immediately to get the dog under control and call EMS. The man was then taken to hospital to be treated for puncture wounds.
“There are lots of measures that are in place to try and mitigate any risk or make sure that (police dog training) is safe for children in the area, for residents in the area,” Regina Police Chief Evan Bray said.
“But I recognize that what happened the other night was an accident, it was a mistake. It’s an unfortunate situation to have happen, we’re not happy that it happened.”
Chief Bray says the incident will now be under a Use-of-Force review, which is done by a committee made up of six experienced police members and chaired by a an Inspector.
“Once we have a chance to look at the entire picture we’ll have a better idea of what went wrong, what was the error” Chief Bray said. “Was it a training issue, was it an issue of an error made by the dog handler, and once we have that, we’ll be able to talk a bit more knowledgeably about what went wrong and things we can do to mitigate that from happening.”
Residents living in the area have mixed feelings on the incident.
“For a dog to go out of its way and not listen to commands and bit one of my neighbours, I think that’s really frightening,” said Elizabeth Steadman.
Others felt the incident wasn’t a cause for concern.
“Stuff happens,” another neighbor said. “The dog is in training… So obviously he needs more training… Or retirement, one of the two.”
Some residents say they don’t feel training should happen in the area.
“I don’t think they should be doing it in neighborhoods like this, they should be going out to areas that don’t have other people around. Cause, you know, they’re still training,” Steadman said.
But police say they need to train where they work.
“We have to train in the areas that we work in,” said Cpl. Jody Lorence, with the Regina Police Service. “If that’s taken away from us… Again, it’s like taking a dive team and putting them in a pool and expecting them to go dive in the black water of Wascana Lake. Same thing in the K-9 world, our operations our in the residential neighbourhoods of the city, and if we never train there, then we can’t possibly expect our handlers to be proficient when they’re actually doing their operational work in those areas.”
Chief Bray also noted that this was a rare incident, and police dogs play a vital role in fighting crime.
“Our K-9 section is an extremely important part of the operational part of our police service,” Chief Bray said. “Our K-9 section works 24/7, we only have six members that work in that section and yet they’re responsible between 350 and 400 arrests a year. And of those arrests only about 10 per cent involve (an actual bite) in order to apprehend the suspect.”
“We just need to find a way to ensure that these types of accidents don’t happen,” he added. “It’s an unfortunate accident, but I certainly encourage our members to be out there training and engaged in the community.
Comments