NCJ Number
189811
Journal
Evaluation Review Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: August 1998 Pages: 535-561
Date Published
August 1998
Length
27 pages
Annotation
This article examined the relationship between the racial composition of areas patrolled by police and the use of police dogs to apprehend suspects.
Abstract
The article considered whether the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) used its police dogs forcibly and disproportionately against non-Whites during the period June 1990 through July 1992. It replicated the findings for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) from January 1989 through December 1991. The article's focus was on the LAPD, with results for the LASD serving as a replication. Data came primarily from arrest and search reports filed by dog handlers. The study found that: (1) the micro was not the only level at which racial effects could be found; (2) any consideration of police discretion must look carefully at prerogatives exercised at the top of police departments as well as at the line level; (3) the precise mechanisms by which race-related deployments occurred remained obscure; (4) there were differences in encounter-level findings depending on whether analyses included unverifiable officers' claims about what dog bite victims had done to provoke their injuries; and (5) dogs had been used in two major U.S. police jurisdictions in ways that had caused a great deal of lasting injury and maiming. In summary, even after controlling for factors that police claim determined the allocation of canine patrols, dogs were disproportionately used in areas with higher proportions of minority residents. Moreover, when more dogs were deployed, citizens were bitten, often severely. Tables, figures, notes, references