By Sarah Calams Police1
LOS ANGELES – A bill was introduced in the California State Assembly on Monday that would ban the use of police K-9s for arrests and crowd control.
Assembly Bill 742 “would prohibit law enforcement agencies from authorizing any use or training of a police dog that is inconsistent with the bill,” the bill’s text states.
The bill strikes down prohibited circumstances surrounding K-9s, including:
- The use of K-9 for arrests, arrests or crowd control
- No LEO using an unleashed K-9 to arrest or apprehend a person, e
- No K-9 will be used under any circumstances to bite.
“A law enforcement agency will not authorize any use or training of a police dog that is inconsistent with this section,” the text reads. “This section shall not be construed to impede the use of police dogs by law enforcement agencies for search and rescue, explosives detection, and drug detection purposes that do not involve biting.”
Ron Cloward, a retired Modesto, Calif. PD lieutenant and current president of the Western States Police Canine Association, told KCRA.com that the bill “doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s a tool and it’s something that, if we take it away, you’re just taking out another non-lethal weapon for law enforcement,” Cloward said.
