Things got heated at the San Diego Commission on Police Practices on Wednesday. The issue: the police use of canines in the apprehension of suspected criminals.
The use of a police dog in the arrest of an Encanto man was recorded on camera. It reignited the debate over that use of force.
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Use of police canines is not considered lethal force by most accounts, but it can be a terrifying sight.
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“Use an animal to attack him like he’s an animal,“ Pillars of the Community member Mitchelle Woodson said.
The commission's meeting on Wednesday opened with an emotional discussion of the use of police service dogs.
The arrest of Marcus Evans in October prompted the commission to invite San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl and part of his command staff to help the community understand such procedures.
“There are hundreds of examples where we have saved lives, protected lives, deescalated situations,“ Wahl said.
In Evans’ case, police were called to his Duluth Avenue home on a complaint he pulled a gun on another household member. Evans was wearing only shorts, but his failure to comply with responding officers got him two less lethal bean bag shotgun blasts and a bite from a police dog.
“At no point, in any of the videos we’ve seen, did any police officer try to detain him, walk up to restrain him,” Woodson said.
The race of suspects bitten by police service dogs is also a point of contention.
“How many of the times you deployed the dogs? How many have been on Black bodies? How many have been on Chicano bodies? How many have been on API bodies?" community advocate Tasha Williamson said.
NBC 7 Investigates analyzed five years of canine bite cases. San Diego Police Department dogs bit 161 people — 66% of them were Black or Hispanic. They only makeup 36% of San Diego’s population.
The police chief says bites reflect the suspect’s refusal to surrender, not their race.
“Our use of force is in response to a suspect’s actions, conduct and behavior," Wahl said. "In a perfect world, we would have complete compliance."
Wahl says the profession is not perfect, which is why there is an ongoing review of all use of force policies.
“Let’s not sit down the dog and say, 'Bad dog. Bad dog.' We need to look at the officers and their training,” said Yusef Miller, the director of the North County Justice Coalition.
The police chief says so far this year, there were 30 apprehensions that involved dog bites. That's 2% of the number of times SDPD canines were deployed.
"That 2% of the time, if there are ways we can do it differently or better and don’t have to use the dog, then absolutely we want to find those ways and use them more often,“ Wahl said.
There were no decisions, recommendations or change of San Diego police policy made after this meeting, but the commission's chair says the use of canines is an issue that will be reviewed again.
Wahl says the Department of Justice, which looked at Evans' case, recently determined it did not meet the level of a federal investigation. It will be reviewed by SDPD's Office of Internal Affairs.
