A leading national police official has attacked California lawmakers over a new bill seeking to ban police dogs in situations involving arrests or crowd control on racial grounds.
The bill, AB 742, was introduced Monday by Assemblyman Corey Jackson (D). It claimed black people were 3 1/2 times more likely to be bitten by a police dog and likened their use to the Civil War era.
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“The use of police canines has been a mainstay in the constant dehumanizing, cruel abuse of Black Americans and people of color in this country. Be it in response to … the murder of George Floyd, during the Los Angeles Race Riots and the Civil Rights Movement, or by slave catchers, police canines are a carryover from a dark past that is not often discussed,” the bill said.
“This is nothing more than race-baiting, anti-cop attention-getting. These are not serious people, and this is not serious legislation,” said retired Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith, the spokeswoman for the National Police Association.
Smith supervised the K-9 unit during her 29 years at a Chicago-area police department. Numerous police dogs are shot to death by suspects every year, taking a bullet that was meant for a police officer or member of the public, she said.
“Police officers in this day and age do not unleash dogs on people because of skin color. There is very strict usage. Because of the defund the police movement, we need tools like K-9s because they can do a lot of things an officer can't do, and that ultimately saves money,” Smith added.
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California police departments, like most in the nation, are short-staffed. Getting rid of K-9s means that more officers have to be hired, she said.
"This is a waste of taxpayer funds and childish wording,” Smith said. “A police department cannot look at this legislation and write policy to advance this directive. We can’t have legislation based on emotion and that’s what this is.”