B.C. police dogs bit 23 unintended victims

Police dogs in British Columbia bit 23 unintended victims in a single year, representing an approximately 5 per cent error rate among police dog bites, according to the latest available data from the provincial government.

The latest data, from 2016, showed 427 people were bitten in B.C. But the number of unintended victims who were bitten is the most concerning number for legal advocates such as lawyer Doug King.

Some of these cases can be life-changing, he said, describing one he’s encountered where an 87-year-old grandmother was mistakenly targeted by a police dog in Vancouver, and another where a man had his leg torn up after chasing off a trespasser in-front of his home.

“The damage done to his leg was catastrophic,” King said. “They straight up bit the wrong person. Those are the ones that really demand an explanation for why that would have happened.”

According to the data,14 of the 23 unintended people bitten by police dogs were officers themselves. Six of these incidents happened under the watch of Vancouver Police Department, eight were from the RCMP.

Vancouver police Const. Jason Doucette said to his knowledge, none of the bitten officers suffered injuries that would have affected their employment. In 2016, the department deployed its police dogs 2,032 times. Just over a quarter of those times, the dog was deployed in course of an arrest.