Video of a shirtless Karond Cheatum lying face down on the ground as a police dog bit his arm, prompted Trunell Price of the newly resurrected San Diego Black Panther Party to speak out.
“What happened to Mr. Cheatum was an inhumane act,” Price said. “They had no compassion for the fact that they had this suspect on the ground in handcuffs and allowed the canine to continue to chew on him.”
Police were responding to calls on July 9 that Cheatum was darting through traffic, leaping onto cars and picking fights in downtown San Diego. According to reports, Cheatum had also threatened officers when the dog was released and bit him.
The video of the incident shows the police dog clamped onto Cheatum’s arm with such a hold that it took at least half a minute for an officer to work to get the animal to release.
“Our dogs bite,” said Larry Adair, a canine handler at the San Diego Police Department for 15 years. “They bite and hold. It’s trained behavior. We’re looking to apprehend or stop a behavior and the bite and hold allows us to gain control of an individual, minimize the amount of damage that is done because by and large this bite is a couple of punctures and pressure as opposed to the multiple bites.”
Adair would not talk about the Cheatum case because it is under investigation.
But he did talk about how officers remove a canine off a suspect. It is not by verbal command.
“We remove the dog physically,” Adair said. “Mechanical application of pressure on the dog’s correction collar to forcibly remove them from the bite when it’s safe to do so.”
The department has 33 canine teams.
Adair said San Diego police use a cross section of breeds including Belgian Malinois, German Shepherds and Dutch Shepherds. Adair said the department imports sports dogs from Europe to use in police work.
“We’re buying an athlete,” he said. “What we buy are the double AA ballplayers who ain’t making the pros.”
Once the dogs arrive in San Diego, the goal is to create an environment where the animals can bond with their handler.
“They arrive dirty, sick and stressed because of the travel," Adair said. “We take them home with us. They get cleaned up. That bond and relationship starts.”
The dogs attend a 10-week academy and undergo further training regularly. Actual deployment depends on the dog's aptitude.
Police canines do smell and hear well. They are often used to track people. They can search for explosive devices. And they apprehend suspects. Like many departments across the country, San Diego police use the dogs as a force option.
”When the police dog shows up, people tend to give up," Adair said. “There’s something visceral, dinosaur brain inside us, nobody wants to get eaten.”
Adair said of the nearly 10,000 radio calls for canine teams since January of this year, they were deployed 1,300 times. Of those deployments, there were 20 bites. He said during that period, no force was used at least 145 times due to the presence of a dog.
Adair said the de-escalation that comes with using canines is vital.
“I’ve been shot at nine times,” he said. “In my career six officers have been murdered. My partner Jake was stabbed 15 times saving my life in 2008. I’m alive because that dog was there.”
Adair said the dogs also keep the public safe.
But San Diego lawyer Nathan Shaman is not so sure.
“I personally don’t believe that it is appropriate to use canines for force at all,” Shaman said.
His client Sarah Lowry was bitten by a San Diego police canine in 2010, after she tripped a silent burglar alarm at her workplace. She sued. But a federal appeals court ruled in June that the officers used reasonable force. Shaman said he is appealing the case to the California Supreme Court.
Since 2013, there were 223 dog bites reported by San Diego police.
Since 2014, there have been five claims filed against San Diego over police dog bites. Two of those cases were settled, one for $1,000 and another for $385,000.
Shaman argued dogs are too difficult to train to respond consistently to commands.
“They are too unpredictable in their behavior," he said.
Shaman said there is another way. The Los Angeles Police Department trains its dogs to find and bark, instead of bite and hold as is the practice in San Diego. In Los Angeles, the dog is trained to bite only if the suspect tries to attack the dog or flee.
This is KPBS Midday addition and I am Maureen Cavanaugh . Police dogs are commonly used to de-escalate what can often be intense situations with suspects. One recent incident in San Diego where a handcuffed man with bitten has raised questions and so much so the city's public safety committee is taking the issue of dog bites. Investigative reporter looks at the controversy. Video of a shirtless African-American man lying facedown on the ground handcuffed as a police dog bit his arm went viral in July. The image of this scene prompted Trinell price at the newly resurrected San Diego Black Panther party to speak out. What happened was inhumane and they had no compassion for the fact that they had the suspect on the ground, handcuffed and they allowed the canine to continue to chew on him. Officers and the dog were responding to calls that Cheatham was dodging through traffic and leaping on the cars while picking fights with bystanders. According to reports Cheatham also threatened officers when the dog was released and bit him. Video said that the police dog clamped onto Cheatham's arm released half a minute while an officer worked to get the canine to release its grip. Our dogs bite and hold him it is a trained behavior. Larry Adair is a San Diego public information officer. When we're looking to upgrade or stop the behavior, the buy and hold allows us to get control of the individual and it minimizes the damage done and by large this bite is a couple of punctures and pressure as opposed to multiple bites. Adair would not speak about the Cheatham case because it is under investigation but he talked about how an officer removes the canine off suspect and it is not by verbal command. >> We remove the.physically by the mechanical application of pressure on the correction: and roll force them to remove from the bite when it is safe to do so. Adair has been a K-9 handler for the department for 15 years. This is my partner Ari. San Diego police have a total of 33 canine teams. The dogs are a cross-section of breeds, German shepherds, Dutch shepherds, and so on and Adair says the department imports sports dogs from Europe. Once the dogs arrive in San Diego Adair says police training includes bonding with their handler, a 10 week Academy, further training and then actual deployment depending on their aptitude. Police canines are often used to track people and sniff out drugs and exposes devices, San Diego police deploy a K-9 when suspects are viewed as armed, dangerous or resisting officers orders. Adair says since January there were 10,000 police calls for K-9 units. Want to police dog shows up, good boy, people tend to give up, there is something visceral, dinosaur brain inside us and no one wants to get eaten. Adair as it since January this year police have avoided using force at least 145 times because of a K-9 team's presence. He says the de-escalation that comes with using canines is vital. I have been shot at nine times in my career. He says the dogs keep officer safe. My partner Jake was stabbed 15 times in 2008 and I am alive because the dog was there. Adair says it keeps the public safe but San Diego lawyer Nathan shaman is not so sure. I personally do not believe it is appropriate to use police canines for force. His client Sarah Lowery was bitten by San Diego police can't canine after taking a silent burglar alarm at her workplace and she sued but a federal appeals court ruled in June officers use reasonable force. Since 2014 there have been five claims wild against San Diego over police dog bites and two of the cases were settled, one for $1000 and another for $385,000. Shaman believes dogs cannot be trained to respond consistently to command. They are too unpredictable. He says there is another way like the city of Los Angeles where he wants to see San Diego police train their dogs to find and bark first and not buy and hold. Joined me as K PBS investigative reporter, a meter sermon, welcome. It is good to be here. At the public safety committee meeting police said last year 86 people were bitten by police dogs but more than one third of the bites and happened in southeastern San Diego neighborhoods. Our critics thing the police dogs are used more frequently in that area of the city? I have not spoken anyone who has said that but this is what I can tell you. I think that the video of Corona Cheatham being bitten while lying facedown on the ground handcuffed startup memories for people, I spoke to one of the leaders of the San Diego Black Panther party that was newly resurrected, he said that video was reminiscent of what civil rights activists in the 1960s faced while they were protesting and they were attacked by police dogs. That is what I can say about that. I think the numbers you just recited require more reporting, there were 86 bites and 2016, 32 of those fights were in the South Eastern division, but we cannot say more than that. We just do not have the context. How do they defend their policy of buy and hold for police dogs? I spoke with a gentleman by the name of Larry Adair who has been a K-9 handler for the department for 15 years. He says the reason the department uses bite and hold is that when a police K-9 unit is deployed it is because officers are looking to apprehend a suspect, to stop the behavior, to gain control of a situation in the way they believe they can do that is if you get the dog to bite and hold, that will cause a lesser degree of injury as opposed to having the dog lose control on the suspect and simply bite over and over again. In your report you say so far this year alone that SDPD avoided using force almost 150 times because they had police dogs. And in the last three years a total of five claims have been filed over police dog bites. Those numbers on the face of them do not indicate police dog bites are a terribly big problem overall but is there a story the numbers are not telling? Still difficult to tell at this moment and the department says it's bite ratio, which is the number of bytes divided by the number of actual K-9 unit deployments is that around 3%, or below 3%. I am told that is very low. Since 2014 there have have been five claims filed against the city of San Diego over police dog bites. One of the claims was settled for $1000. But there was another claim that was settled for $385,000. That information was sent to us late Friday even though it was asked for back in July. We do not have the particular details on that particular case so we don't know. You mentioned the LAPD trance police dogs to find and bark, how does that work? They basically train their dogs to find the suspect and stand guard and bark around the suspect until that person can be apprehended. Now if that suspect makes a move or tries to flee or tries to attack the dog then the dog is trained to bite the suspect. But in apprehending or trying to apprehend the suspect the bite and hold will not be the first move the dog makes. No. What are some of the changes the critics of the spite hold policy are seeking? I spoke with a man by the name of Nathan Shaman whose client, Sarah Lowery, was bitten by a San Diego police kind and - police K-9 when she excellently tripped a silent burglar alarm back in 2010. He would like to see the San Diego Police Department employ the same kind of strategy that LAPD does. He thinks the dogs are too unpredictable to consistently obey commands. I have been speaking with investigative reporter Ametha Sharma, thank you. Thank you Maureen.
