Police dog bites

[sadoksevoli]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12713723

The main thrust of the news story is the £770,000 paid out to compensate people for Fido sinking his teeth into one part of the anatomy or another. It doesn't actually say whether any of this money ever went to anyone who was actually being pursued, it just cites cases where a bystander was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

However now comes the amusing bit:

BBC said:

One of their payouts was for £49,000. It was for an incident that happened during a chase, when the dog was distracted by noises in the area. No action was taken against the dog or the handler.

I wouldn't mind having clarified what "action" could be taken against the dog?
"Bad boy! No biscuits for you for a week", "Four weeks of guarding the car park for you", "You're grounded, no dates with sniffer dogs for a month" or do they hand the dog a sternly-worded letter and give him a good talking to? Just wondering.

ETA Forgot to add linky

[Tsippy]

They feed it Tesco value dog food instead of Pedigree Chum

[bigandclever]

sadoksevoli said:

I wouldn't mind having clarified what "action" could be taken against the dog?

I would imagine that under some interpretation or other of the Dangerous Dogs Act it could be put to sleep.

[Jasandjules]

bigandclever said:

I would imagine that under some interpretation or other of the Dangerous Dogs Act it could be put to sleep.

I should have thought so - don't know if there is any caselaw on police dogs.

One story I was told by an officer years ago however is that one of their dogs bit far more officers than criminals....................

[s3fella]

Yes, they can kill it.

[Milky Joe]

Police dogs are awesome and the only thing left the scumbags still fear. Saw a car thief get a nibble once and it will have more impact on him than any court.

[SteveScooby]

Jasandjules said:

One story I was told by an officer years ago however is that one of their dogs bit far more officers than criminals....................

According to the article: Forty-three forces provided a breakdown of their figures by the type of person bitten. Between them, 2,725 suspects were bitten, along with 196 police staff and 155 other members of the public.

[Halb]

Jasandjules said:

I should have thought so - don't know if there is any caselaw on police dogs.

One story I was told by an officer years ago however is that one of their dogs bit the criminals in uniform as well as the others.....................

EFA

[Flintstone]

I would imagine that on balance it's better to have the dogs hyped-up and therefore able to do their job (and accept the occasional piece of collateral damage) than pamper them and render them useless.

[leeb]

Dangerous dog charges? Surely you want them to be bloody dangerous. If I was a crim and knew the hound was on the way id think twice. If it was a copper with a gun and I wasn't armed, or appear to be, whats he going to do? I'd fancy my chances more with the copper than the dog!

Keep them, and keep them dangerous and obedient I say.

[Derek Smith]

leeb said:

Dangerous dog charges? Surely you want them to be bloody dangerous. If I was a crim and knew the hound was on the way id think twice. If it was a copper with a gun and I wasn't armed, or appear to be, whats he going to do? I'd fancy my chances more with the copper than the dog!

Keep them, and keep them dangerous and obedient I say.

I had to run an ID parade for a lad (15 I think) who'd had part of his ear bitten off by a police dog. There were also gouges in his skull and a fair bit of swelling. One of my more difficult days.

Those witnesses who did pick him out all said that the kid had been doing nothing wrong, just standing in a small crowd watching the offenders being arrested.

It was, I seem to remember, the biggest single payout for a dog bite in this country. That was around 2003.