Bill to protect police dogs could fine K-9 assailants up to $45K
There’s more than an emotional toll when a K-9 police dog is killed or injured in the line of duty. There’s also a financial impact, say law enforcement officials who want animal assailants to be held responsible and pay restitution.
Towns and cities spend between $20,000 and $45,000 buying and training police dogs to work for their police departments, officers told lawmakers on Thursday during a public hearing on the proposed legislation.
But at least one member of the legislative Public Safety & Security Committee wondered how effective a new restitution law would be on criminals who already face Class D felony charges for injuring or killing on-duty police dogs, and might not have have tens of thousands of dollars.
Enfield K-9 Police Officer Michael Colantuono said during the public hearing on the proposed legislation that hundreds of hours of training were required before his current partner dog “Dunkin” was certified for law enforcement operations.
He said that most law enforcement dogs are bred in Europe and brought to the United States at about one year of age, with no training. “All they know is how to eat, fight and hopefully play with a ball, and it’s a bonus if they are housetrained,” Colantuona said. “They have to go through a rigorous screening and a selection process to choose the right dog for the handler, for the initial patrol-dog school. The bond has to immediately commence. Civilians outside of law enforcement probably think we get a nice little dog, load him into the cruiser and the show goes on.”
Dunkin is Colantuono’s third K-9 partner, and was selected after a two-day visit to a facility in western Pennsylvania. For the following six months, Colantuono hand-fed the dog twice a day as part of the bonding, as training proceeded. “We tell everyone that these dogs do everything we ask them to do because they love us, but in reality it’s for the ball we always carry in our pockets,” he said.
The canine training academy can take as long as 16 weeks as the dogs learn handler protection, evidence recovery, and tracking missing persons and criminal suspects. They may eventually take cross-training in specialized procedures, including bomb detection.
“That’s approximately 20 to 22 weeks, cumulative, for an officer and/or a trooper to be off the road getting certified as a team, let alone all the hours and training that’s done in your off time to keep the dogs in top cardio shape and proficient in their obedience,” he said. “We honestly spend more time with our partner than we do with our families.”
Colantuono said that law enforcement has many unknowns, such as suspects who might suddenly become violent. Canine training in de-escalation is very important, as well. “There have been more times than I can count where we rolled up on a hectic scene and all it takes is a few good barks from the back of the car and everything starts to cool down,” he said.
There are hundreds of law enforcement K-9 handlers in the state, and in case of injury or death, the costs of veterinary treatment and obtaining and training for new dogs should not fall on local taxpayers or the state, Colantuono told lawmakers.
Under questioning from state Rep. Greg Howard of Stonington, a top Republican on the committee who is also a police officer, Colantuano said that during the extended training, handlers and their dogs are not on regular patrol, adding further costs to municipalities and the State Police, especially in overtime.
“We can’t lose track of the cost to the municipality that happens here,” Howard said. “These dogs have tremendous value to us emotionally, but they also have tremendous fiscal value to the municipality and I think we need to look at that holistically, when we talk about restitution and what it would take to replace that animal if that were to happen.”
Rep. Michael Quinn, D-Meriden and committee member, said the practical matter of retrieving restitution seems a major real-world obstacle to getting such a law, if enacted, to work. “The way that it reads, to me the restitution would be part of any probation period that they would get in addition to any time served,” Quinn said. “And then not paying restitution would be a violation of probation.”
The deadline for the committee to act is March 19. The legislative session ends at midnight May 8.
In December, a suspect who killed a State Police dog named “Broko,” was shot dead by troopers during an incident in the Pawcatuck section of Stonington, near the Rhode Island border.
“K-9 Broko heroically served with unwavering dedication, saving lives by locating missing individuals, apprehending dangerous suspects, and providing a steadfast shield to his handler. K-9 Broko ultimately sacrificed his life doing what he was known best for,” state police said at the time of Broko’s death.
In written testimony, Stacey Ober, regional manager of government relations for the American Kennel Club, wrote that she supported the legislation. But Ober stressed the need for more scientific research and breeding programs to ensure more domestically bred canines are used for law enforcement.
“We value the contribution that working and detection dogs make to national security and the extraordinary role that these dogs play in protecting the peace and security of individuals, communities, and nations against extremist threats,” Ober wrote, adding the AKC’s Reunite’s Adopt a K-9 Cop program has provided several dogs to Connecticut police departments, including Newtown, Monroe, Westport, Redding, Middletown, Fairfield, Wilton and Stratford.