CA Bill Would Ban K-9 Arrests

California Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley) has introduced a bill that would bar the use of police dogs in arrests, apprehensions and crowd control.  Evan Symon of the California Globe reports that the purpose of AB 742 is to end the disproportionate number of African Americans and people of color that are apprehended and injured by police dogs.  “We have to understand that the use of police K-9s has been a mainstay in this country’s dehumanization and it’s cruel and violent history,” said Assemblyman Jackson.  The problem is, a ban on police dogs will not reduce African American exposure to police, and will almost certainly increase shootings of suspects of color.  The disproportionate number of police encounters with blacks is the result of the disproportionate number of crimes committed by blacks.  In Los Angeles for example,  blacks commit forty-four percent of all violent crime, though they’re nine percent of the population.

Utilizing police dogs to subdue possibly-armed suspects reduces the odds of suspects, or responding officers from getting shot.  On a March evening in 2018, two rookie Sacramento Police Officers, responding to a residential car burglary call, chased 22-year-old Stephan Clark into a backyard.  Clark, a repeat felon, was cornered but refused multiple orders to drop what he was holding and put his hands up.  When he turned toward the officers, they shot and killed him.  Black Lives Matter claimed that Clark was shot because he was black, although one of the responding officers was also black.  For a week, rioters blocked streets around the district attorney’s office demanding that the officers be prosecuted for murder.  Separate investigations by the Sacramento District Attorney and the California Attorney General (a democrat) found no evidence of racial bias or criminal behavior by the officers.  But had the rookie officers called in a K-9 unit when they had Clark cornered in the back yard, it is highly likely Clark will still be alive today.

This is not the 1960s in Alabama.  Police K-9s and their handlers are highly trained and extremely effective in de-escalating situations where lethal force might be necessary.  The President of the California Police Chiefs Association noted that “removing a non-lethal and highly effective law enforcement ally, which is used primarily to de-escalate and diffuse volatile scenarios, gravely hinders of our police officers’ safety and ability to reduce the amount of force used in those circumstances.”

As usual, this racially-motivated legislation, will make things worse for the people-of-color supporters claim they want to protect.