Aclu Sinks Teeth Into Seattle Police Dogs

A civil-rights group is calling on residents to demand a City Council review of police-dog policies, saying the animals bite people much more frequently than those of some other police departments.

Officials of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington said their studies showed the Seattle dogs bit people up to 63 percent of the times they were released by their handlers.

That apparently resulted from a policy of teaching the dogs a “find-and-bite” approach rather than “find and bark” to corner a suspect, the ACLU said Thursday.

That contrasts with a 1.3 percent bite rate for King County police dogs.

The Seattle method results in “excessive use of force in many situations,” said Julya Hampton, the ACLU’s state legal program director.

The studies also showed that 40 percent of the people bitten by Seattle police dogs were suspected only of misdemeanor crimes, the group said.

Seattle police declined comment on the ACLU claims, citing a pending lawsuit.

The ACLU filed the class-action suit against the city on behalf of three taxpayers and four people bitten by police dogs.

ACLU attorney Ted Spearman said that in several instances, witnesses to crimes have been attacked by dogs turned loose to find suspects.

King County and Spokane police train their dogs to corner suspects but not to bite unless the suspect threatens the officer handling the dog, the ACLU said. Los Angeles adopted similar restrictions in settling a lawsuit against that city.

Jerry Sheehan, ACLU’s legislative director, urged residents to seek a City Council review of the dog policy. The group wants to limit the circumstances in which dogs are used to exert violent force.