Dangerous dogs unit beefed up Rise in attacks and links to other crime revealed
WEST Midlands Police is to bolster its dangerous dog unit after a 12 per cent increase in attacks last year.
Officers are also taking action to speed up enforcement action to slash the £430,000-a-year costs of keeping dogs in kennels before destroying them or sending them back to their owner.
The Police and Crime Commissioner’s board was told that while animal cruelty is often seen as a low priority, it is often an indication of other criminal activity.
Figures showed that during 2017-18 there were 618 incidents of dogs being dangerously out of control in the region, up from 553 the previous year.
But offences involving banned fighting dog breeds – including the Japanese Toza, the Pit Bull Terrier – have fallen year on year, down from 122 in 2016-17 to 91 last year.
West Midlands Police is now referring all cases through its specialist Dangerous Dogs Unit, which has four members of staff, to ensure a consistent response.
Carl Binns, of the unit, said: “Animal cruelty and crimes involving animals matter a great deal to members of the public.”
He said that they were working with the Crown Prosecution Service to introduce a dedicated court process which would deal specifically with dangerous dog cases and related crimes. He added: “This is important as it is looking at centralising specialist knowledge and how we can improve the timeliness of cases. This would have a positive impact on the costs of kennelling.”
Mr Binns explained the unit was working with other agencies on exploring the links between animal cruelty and domestic violence.
“There’s a growing evidence base in the UK, but also abroad in America and Australia which looks at links between domestic violence and animal cruelty offences,” he explained.
“Animal cruelty can be seen as both an indicator of other forms of violence which occur in the household but also animal cruelty is used as a control mechanism to prevent people escaping a household out of love for their pets.”
He added that better understanding of these links can help with early intervention in domestic violence.
Chief Inspector Dawn Miskella, also from the unit, said: “Nationally there has been a correlation between organised crime and dangerous dogs offences.
“We often find we are dealing with dangerous dog type issues when we are dealing with other forms of criminality. For example if we execute a warrant at an address where we’d got drugs intelligence we would often find a certain type of dog at those addresses.”
Police Commissioner David Jamieson backed the unit. He said: “We are increasing the number of officers in the Dangerous Dogs Unit. This will help centralise dangerous dog cases within the Dangerous Dogs Unit, where previously cases were dealt with by inspectors across the force.
“This should help shorten the length of time it takes for cases to be finalised and thus reduce future kennelling costs.”
There has been a correlation between organised crime and dangerous dogs offences Chief Inspector Dawn Miskella