Some good news even if only in Beaverton Oregon: Good Day All. Some good news may be welcome on the issue of the increase of law enforcement officers shooting, often killing, familys dogs. This good news is local and may be of interest to you. Several months ago, in my ongoing effort to get adequate training into the hands of all law enforcement officers, I sent a letter to several police chiefs and county sheriffs in our area asking them to look at a training video series created by a division of the U.S. Department of Justice and distribute it throughout their agency. I hoped that by getting this training in front of our local law enforcement officers we can help make sure that our dogs are as safe as possible from being shot/killed by a law enforcement officer should there be an incident where our dog is in front of one. I received an e-mail recently and had a very nice and reassuring telephone conversation with Captain Jeff Williams of the Beaverton Police Department yesterday. I wanted to share some of the details of our discussion with you all today. Captain Williams was given the link to the training video series by the police chief and has taken action by forwarding it to the bureaus training officer to augment their training regimen to include the use of the training video’s as well as additional training by the bureaus K-9 division on how to read and interpret canine body language, how to diffuse a situation with a dog, as well as how to handle dogs in a non-lethal manner. As a resident of Beaverton I can’t tell you how relieved I am to know that our local police bureau is not only interested in my safety but also in my dog’s safety while doing their best to ensure the safety of their officers in the field. It was obvious to me that Captain Williams is dedicated to seeing this through so that whenever their officers in the field come into contact with a dog that should the situation allow that they will take the time to implement the training so that both they and the dog are safe. I’m very excited to hear this as while this doesn’t seem to be an issue here in Oregon, meaning we haven’t had a high rate of incidents where family dogs have been shot/killed by law enforcement, we should be doing everything we can to prevent such incidents from happening. Of course as in all things we dog owners bear responsibility as well. We must always do our very best to make sure that our dogs are well-socialized, well-behaved and safe to be around in addition to having complete and total control of our dogs at all times. It’s our responsibility to ensure that our dogs are secured in our homes when we are not present. Of course things happen and everyone understands that in spite of how responsible we are or what precautions we take sometimes dogs get out of yards and run at large. We can’t predict if or when this may happen to us. A meter reader leaves a gate open, a gate latch we thought was secure wasnt secure, someone leaves a door open in the house and our dog slips out. Things happen for sure but let’s do our best, do our part, to make sure that our dogs are secured in our homes so that they are not a danger to anyone. This includes putting our dogs in a secure location should law enforcement ever come to our homes; this is EXTREMELY important in keeping our dogs safe from harm at the hands of law enforcement. There are many reasons why law enforcement officers might visit our home or property so the best policy is if we are home we secure our dogs immediately upon knowing that law enforcement is on our property. This is not only for our dogs safety but for the safety of the officers. It is indeed a two-way street, keeping our dogs safe from harm by the hands of law enforcement, so let’s all just remember to do everything we can to assure that our dogs are safe while helping our local law enforcement officers be safe when they are on our property. Thanks everyone for being the great, responsible, caring, advocating pit bull owners that you are!!! Regards, Cheryl cops.igpa.uillinois.edu/resources/police-dog-encounters
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:47:55 +0000
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