Cincinnati Police Specialist David Kennedy monitors training for his canine partner, Bach. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

        “Find and bark” or “bite and hold?”

        A barking German shepherd can immobilize a suspect with fear as effectively as he can with his teeth, the federal government says.

        No way, say police dog handlers in Cincinnati and across the country — we're not as safe if our dogs can't bite. And thousands of police dogs across the country are trained the same way — to find a suspect and hold on.

        The U.S. Department of Justice, in its 23-page list of recommendations on reforming the Cincinnati Police Division, did not challenge specific use of the dogs here, but they want the city's “bite and hold” practice changed to “find and bark.”

        “We don't train our dogs to hurt people or to do street justice,” said Sgt. Dan Hils, who supervises the Cincinnati police canine unit. “But we routinely ask our dogs to look for people who have guns. And you have to remember that the dogs are protecting their human partners.”

        Twenty-nine suspects were bitten between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31, according to police reports. That might be too many, federal officials said.

        They also made clear in their recommendations that Cincinnati should do a better job of training, monitoring and more judiciously using force, including with its canines.

        “We recommend that the CPD explicitly adopt a find and bark policy ... (which) prevents canines from biting subjects in situations in which such force is not necessary to effect an arrest or protect the safety of officers or civilians,” the Justice Department said.

        The Police Division is researching each recommendation, determining which ones it readily agrees with, which ones need debate and which ones Chief Tom Streicher might reject. City council now also has begun debating the merits of the requests.

On crime's trail

        Cincinnati police dogs don't look for drugs. They hunt people and things — by following crushed grass and leaves, and by tracking the human scent, either the scent of the fleeing person or the scent a person leaves on an item, such as a gun.

INFOGRAPHIC

Facts about police dogs

        Luger, a veteran police dog who soon will be retired, chased a man in October in Walnut Hills, He led officers to a stolen cash register and the man's baseball cap before finding and biting the man.

        Last spring, Luger tracked a man a mile and a half to a wooded area off Glenway Avenue after an officer saw the man break into a Westwood building.

        Of the 29 people bitten:

        • All are men.

        • 23 are African-American, one is Hispanic, five are white.

        • Nine are juveniles.

        Twenty-two subsequently were charged with breaking and entering, receiving stolen property or aggravated robbery. Others face other charges including resisting arrest and obstructing official business. Four had broken into schools and were hiding inside. Four bailed out of stolen vehicles. One, in Carthage, was a suspected rapist.

        Most tried unsuccessfully to hide in bushes or in wooded areas. The suspects were bitten mostly on their arms and legs.

        The dogs work at night a lot, with all but one of the bites happening between 8:30 p.m. and 4:30 a.m. They're called to neighborhoods all over the city, from Price Hill and Clifton to College Hill, Hyde Park and Avondale.

        Two of the bites occurred April 12, the last day of the riots — one after a 1 a.m. break-in at Deveroes clothing store in Over-the-Rhine, where a department dog named Bach found man hiding in a basement office, the other after police were called to a burglary at a West End grocery.

        Police supervisors ruled use of the dogs to be consistent with police division policy in every case.

Feds: Limit bites

        Specifically, the Department of Justice recommended Cincinnati also:

        • Clarify when dogs can be used. Policy says dogs can search for suspects in felonies or serious misdemeanors, but it does not define serious misdemeanors.

        • Require officers to give oral warnings before releasing their dogs. Police say they always do, but the policy does not detail how many warnings.

        • Better analyze the activity of the canine unit, including counting how many suspects are apprehended without being bitten.

        The government did not outline which, if any, times Cincinnati dogs bit when they shouldn't have. But it touted “find and bark” as a generally better way to limit unnecessary bites.

        Handlers, such as Cincinnati's Spec. Dave Kennedy, say the change could leave them more vulnerable, particularly in situations involving a suspect with a gun.

        If the dog only barks and the suspect isn't deterred, they say, the handler is more at risk. Cincinnati lost an officer and a dog in 1987, when Bandit was sent after a man who'd fatally shot Officer Clifford George. The man was later shot and killed too, but not before using Officer George's gun to kill Bandit and wound Bandit's human partner.

        The dogs and officers train together, work together and live together.

        “I spend more time with him than I do with my family,” Spec. Kennedy said, talking about his dog, Bach. “He is my partner. It's just me and him.”

        Because so many police departments nationwide train and use dogs the same way as Cincinnati does, news of the federal request to switch to a “find and bark” policy spread quickly throughout law-enforcement canine circles.

        “This is a big-time, knock-down, drag-out fight,” said Rick Ramsey, president of the National Police Canine Association and a handler in Tucson, Ariz. “You have to look at a dog like a little kid. This is putting too much faith in them to make decisions.”

        Some departments, particularly in California, do prefer “find and bark” dogs. Departments in Los Angeles and Oakland changed their policies after lawsuits involving canine use.

        But the changes were voluntary; no court has ever ruled that a department must use “find and bark.”

        “I hope the Feds don't show up here,” said Sgt. Craig Patton, training supervisor for the Indianapolis Police Department's canine unit, the second-largest in the United States with 33 dogs.

        In any case, the “find and bark” policy isn't foolproof.

        What lay people don't understand, Sgt. Patton said, is that a dog trained to “find and bark” will bite anyway if a suspect doesn't stay calm enough. The animal can't reason, handlers here and elsewhere say.

        It only works, they say, if the cornered suspect stays still.

        “You've got a German shepherd getting right up in your face and barking,” said veteran Cincinnati handler Lonnie Brock. “You can't tell me you're going to stand perfectly still. And if you don't, he will bite you.”

New training

        The internal and external scrutiny of canine use in Cincinnati comes at an important time for the unit. Understaffed for years, in part because of a lawsuit where handlers sought more money for off-hours dog care, the division is just now building back up to its authorized complement of 10 dogs.

        Eight new German shepherds are about halfway through their 14 weeks of training. When they're ready to work early next year, two of the current four dogs will retire.

        As the dogs train, division officials continue to research how canine policies should change. After the Justice Department sent its recommendations, Chief Streicher ordered a thorough picking-apart of the report.

        Plans already are in the works to teach more about the dogs to field supervisors. They're the on-scene officials who must determine if a situation warrants the use of a dog.

        The division also removed from its policy the use of dogs for crowd control and during civil disturbances. The removal was only a formality, Sgt. Hils said; the division hasn't used dogs that way in years.

        Chief Streicher said other changes likely will be outlined in the next few weeks.

        “For us, canines are a use-of-force issue,” the chief said. “That's what we consider them, and we always have.”

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