Editorial: Are police dog programs a community benefit?

Beware of dog.

It’s a simple sentiment and one that requires little explanation. See a sign with those words on a fence, and you know there’s a guard on the other side whose bark could be worse than his bite — if you’re lucky.

Similarly, the letters “K-9” on a police car deliver a message. There’s an officer in that vehicle whose whole purpose is to do a job without argument or exception. A police dog is trained to do a task. He finds the drugs. He locates the fugitive. He alerts to the weapon. He follows the trail to the missing.

In 1977, there were 632 police dog programs in the U.S., according to the federal Department of Justice. Today, there are about 50,000 police dogs in active use. Most are breeds with specialized traits beneficial to the job — German shepherds, Belgian Malinois, Dutch shepherds, Dobermans, Labrador retrievers. If a dog is good at hunting, it is probably good at police work.

There are about 18,000 police departments in the U.S. That points to a wide distribution of police dogs. While the math would say at least two dogs to a department, that’s not the case. Bigger agencies with need for K-9 skills skew the math. Still, use of trained dogs is common. If your community doesn’t have one for everyday use, it probably has access to one for special assignments.

Is the benefit worth the investment? For dozens of departments in Southwestern Pennsylvania, the answer has been yes. Delmont just restarted its program with money from the state and Westmoreland County. Westmoreland County Prison is starting a dog program.

At the same time, Latrobe just closed its program as German shepherd Zeus hit 8 years old, the age many K-9s retire. City officials opted to dedicate the remainder of its $40,000 K-9 fund to caring for Zeus in his later years rather than investing in a new dog. The program’s annual cost was about $35,000.

Jeannette abruptly shuttered its two-dog program in July. The public turned out in force Aug. 8 to protest the decision, which has put Belgian Malinois Diesel, 4, in a kennel amid legal questions between council and his handler, Sgt. James Phillips. The move came a month after Phillips and Officer Matthew Painter filed a federal lawsuit claiming labor violations for after-work care for the animals.

As the Jeannette meeting showed, police dog programs are popular. On Aug. 10, country singer Brian Kelley surprised a young girl raising money for a Tarentum police dog by buying the dog himself.

K-9 units also had a spotlight in 2023 after several high-profile prisoner escapes, including one in the Philadelphia area where a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois captured convicted murderer Danelo Cavalcante by biting him in the head and thigh.

Does every department need a police dog? Trainers like Bill Sombo of North Huntingdon say yes, but that’s debatable.

What is demonstrable is the expensive part of a K-9 program is starting one — buying the dog, training it and outfitting the department with what it needs to support it. Starting a K-9 program should be done with deliberation and an appreciation of the overall costs and potential fundraising and grant writing needed to support it.

But there are two ways to close one down. It can be done thoughtfully at a time in the cycle of the dog’s work and life that makes sense. Or it can be done unexpectedly, with unanswered questions about how and why — and that’s something to beware of.