Policing With Dogs

By Sgt Jeff HOPKINS
Niagara Regional Police Service
Canine Unit Co-coordinator/Trainer

Within the complex world of policing our communities, why was the use of dogs included in the process. Some answers may be obvious and some not so obvious. Firstly, the dog’s physical attributes assists their human partner in locating people and evidence. This might be an obvious answer. Some not so obvious answers might be that a dog’s usage enhances officer safety, that a dog’s deployment expedites calls, that a dog offers a separate level of force consideration and use of a dog can saves resources. Let’s investigate all these possibilities more in depth.

Location of People and Evidence:

The dog in its design has an acute sense of smell, far superior to that of a human. The use of the canine’s olfactory system assists police in locating evidence that would otherwise be left undetected. Depending on which scientific study one might buy into, a dog’s sense of smell is anywhere from 700 to 12 million times magnified to that of us humans. Anyway you cut it, their nose is far more sensitive than ours. A good word picture of this difference might be, when driving by a bakery at thirty miles an hour with the windows of the vehicle open, a human might smell the hundreds of loaves of bread baking. Place a dog in that same car and travel down the road at thirty miles per hour and he would smell one loaf of bread sitting on the curbside. We need a large concentration of odour before our noses can detect it however a dog requires much less. In the real world of policing, we the police cannot control how much odour is available to us by the actions of a suspect. Most often, it is too minute for human detection and therefore requires a much more acute system, a dog’s nose. Assisting us in our effort to deploy the dog is the canine’s ability to co-exist with humans in a pack like atmosphere. There are other animals whose noses are more sensitive than that of the dog, the list would include bears and sharks, but their inability to adapt to reasonable behaviour amongst humans makes them obviously unusable for our purposes. For millenniums, dogs have allowed themselves to co-exist with humans. The humans provided food and shelter while the dogs provided companionship and protection. It was a symbiotic relationship that has no equal in the animal kingdom. While in this relationship of trust, we are able to apply the dog’s physical attributes to our benefit. Those attributes include along with the acute sense of smell, advanced speed and agility, superior hunting skills and defense drives. All these combined enhance the dog’s ability to assist their human partners.

Enhancing Officer Safety:

Policing has an element of danger associated to it. Countless hours and monies are spent to develop into each officer, skills and knowledge that will assist them in being effective in their duties while overcoming threats to their well-being. However, one cannot be completely prepared for every situation. A well-trained Police Service Dog has proven to be an effective tool in providing a safer work environment for our police. As humans, our primary sense is our sight. Some studies have suggested that humans use their sense of sight up to 90% of their waking state while our other four senses make up the remaining 10%. Combine this with the fact that a dog uses his sense of smell approximately 80% of the time and one can see that humans and dogs exist in the world from very differing perspectives. Most of who we are and what we do is based on what we see conversely; to a dog it’s what it smells. Therefore, most of what we react to is to that which we see. If looking for a suspect of a crime, we generally must first see him/her before we can react. If they conceal themselves and remain quiet, it would require an officer to search for them exposing the officer to added risk. However, as the suspect remains hidden, he/she cannot stop the natural flow of scent leaving their person of which a dog can easily detect. By deploying a police canine, an officer can remain in cover while the swifter and more effective hunter can search for scent. When the dog is successful, the suspect can be verbally called from his concealed location and ordered to a compliant position, all while the officer remains in their position of cover. This removes much of the threat to an officer while still ensuring a successful conclusion to an incident. Add to this the obvious concern the presence of a well-trained police dog would be to a potentially violent suspect, assaults against police are greatly reduced. It also reduces the use of force complaints against the police because the presence of the dog greatly increases the chance of compliance amongst those arrested. This results in less complaints of excessive use of force and the associated costly investigations. In Niagara, on the rare occasion when violent acts against the police have occurred while service dogs are present, the dogs have been ample to the task, again, reducing the injury to officers.

Expedition of Calls For Service:

Policing costs money, taxpayer’s money and the police are ever cognizant of this. Therefore, they are ever watchful for cost reducing effective alternatives that assist in fulfilling their mandate. The potential of dogs increasing the likelihood of a successful conclusion to an investigation while reducing costs has great appeal. Because a dog’s primary sensory receptor is his nose, he can be deployed to locate persons and evidence (eg. drugs, explosives, property) that are concealed and would have been less likely located by human means. This speeds up investigations and reduces the need for lengthy follow-up investigations, thus reducing costs. Add to this that should a dog locate a suspect after following a scent trail from a recent crime scene, the likelihood of associating him/her with the criminal activity is higher than should he be located days later only after a lengthy investigation. This increases the chances for conviction giving a level of satisfaction to the victims of the offence and causing the offender to accept responsibilities for their actions. Add to this the reputation of the canine’s effectiveness and a real deterrent against crime is now present. Reduced crime leads to reduced costs.

Use of Force Option:

Policing at times requires the police to ensure that people are accountable for their actions. A large majority of the public is compliant with the reasonable requirements of our society and are law honouring and abiding citizens. A small minority however is not. Given an opportunity they will violate the laws of the land and to this minority the police must respond. Most of these offenders do not care to be held accountable and will go to great lengths to avoid this responsibility. This includes resisting the lawful actions of the police. Police are given certain powers along with guidelines in the application of those powers. Force used to affect an arrest can be no more than is necessary. Each situation is different so level of force options will vary. The most dangerous of situations may require the use of deadly force and the police go to great lengths to avoid its usage. A well-trained police service dog provides a level of force option less than deadly force that when applied properly, can bring a violent situation under control, limiting the injuries to police, suspect and victims. This is not a replacement to higher levels of force but an option only available to those services with canine programs. The dog’s presence is in itself usually enough force causing most suspects to abandon any further consideration of flight or fight. To this, an effective canine program not only increases the likelihood of the location of suspects, but it reduces the potential of injuries to officers and suspects, thus reducing costs and increasing our effectiveness while serving our communities