SACRAMENTO, California (KCRA) — Introduced Monday at California's Capitol: AB-742, the Use of Force: Police Canines legislation.
"This bill seeks to end a deeply racialized traumatic and harmful practice by prohibiting the use of police K-9s," Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Perris) said at a news conference.
His bill takes aim at the use of law enforcement K-9s. Specifically, the bill would prohibit those dogs from being used to make arrests, apprehensions, or from being part of crowd control measures, according to the bill's wording.
"Police K-9s remain a gross misuse of force, victimizing Black and Brown people disproportionately," said Jackson. "The use of police K-9s have been a mainstay in this country's dehumanization in its cruel and violent history."
Veterans in law enforcement K-9 handling, however, don't agree with the bill's provisions.
"It just makes no sense," said Ron Cloward, a retired lieutenant with the Modesto Police Department and president of the Western States Police Canine Association.
He said police dogs are an invaluable non-lethal part of agencies across the country.
"It's a tool and it's something that, if we take it away you're just eliminating one more non-lethal weapon for law enforcement," Cloward said.
Cloward owns and operates a K-9 training and consulting business. Agencies statewide put handlers and their dogs through his multi-week courses, which he said have evolved during his time in police work to, first and foremost, focus on de-escalation tactics.
"The other is focusing on more controlled police dogs and being under complete control at all times by the handler," said Cloward.
Dog bites, Cloward admits, can be vicious and disfiguring.
"I’m not gonna say that a bad bite can't happen because they do," Cloward said. "But people don’t die from dog bites."
Taking it a step further, Cloward points to K-9s being the only method of force that you can recall after deployment.
"Once you've deployed pepper spray, it's been deployed. It's gonna land. Once you use your gun, it's gone. Once you use a taser, it's on its way. You're not stopping it," he explained. "The only thing you can stop is a K-9."
A tool Cloward argues shouldn't be tampered with by legislation.
"They are what they are," he said. "What's the alternative? Someone laying in a morgue with a gunshot wound?"
Under AB-742, K-9s could still be used for search and rescue, explosives detection, and narcotics detection that does not involve biting.
