Md. Police Unit Free Of U.S. Oversight
Prince George's Canine Officers Reduced Dog Bites

By Ruben Castaneda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2007

The Prince George's County police canine unit, which in recent years operated under a Justice Department consent decree because of allegations of excessive force and lack of accountability, has improved to the point that the oversight is no longer necessary, a federal judge in Maryland has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus on Monday granted a motion filed jointly by the Justice Department, the county and the police department to end the federal oversight that began in 2004, Prince George's officials said.

The judge's order means the department has succeeded in reforming the canine unit by dramatically reducing the number of bites inflicted by police dogs, beefing up supervision of canine teams, instituting reviews of biting incidents and improving documentation of such encounters, county officials said.

"Something must be working, because I haven't heard any complaints about dogs biting," Titus said in court Monday.

The oversight will formally end March 11.

A separate agreement between county officials and the Justice Department, which was negotiated to end a Justice investigation into allegations of excessive force by county police, is still operative. The department is in substantial compliance with the terms of that agreement, which calls for broad reforms regarding use of force, training and other issues, said Sharon Taylor, a spokeswoman for the police department.

The end of the canine consent decree "is absolutely good news. This department has worked really hard to get to this place," said Police Chief Melvin C. High. "I am very proud of the members of our canine unit and the efforts they have made."

County resident Redmond Barnes, a member of a group that advocates for police accountability, said he hopes the positive changes in the canine unit signal the beginning of broader police reforms.

"Federal intervention seems to be having an impact, and we can only hope it will have a greater impact," said Barnes, a member of the People's Coalition for Police Accountability.

On a practical level, the end of the consent decree means police officials will no longer undergo periodic Justice Department reviews and will no longer be required to file detailed reports to Justice officials.

However, the canine unit reforms will continue, Taylor said.

The county police department has 11 canine teams, each consisting of a police dog and its officer handler. The unit includes Labrador retrievers as well as Belgian Malinois canines, which resemble German shepherds but are slightly smaller. Both sniff out bombs and drugs; the Belgian Malinois dogs also chase suspects.

Canine unit reforms have resulted in dramatically fewer injuries to suspects and other people.

During a seven-year period from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, county police dogs were involved in nearly 800 biting incidents, according to an internal police report included in a federal civil lawsuit against a police canine handler. Most of the bite victims were people suspected of petty, nonviolent crimes. Some were bitten multiple times and suffered grave, debilitating injuries.

Last year, county police dogs apprehended 55 suspects without biting them, and they bit eight suspects, police officials said. The previous year, the police canines bit five people and apprehended 36 suspects without inflicting injury, police said.

For decades, county police dogs were trained to catch suspects by biting and holding them. In May 1999, police officials announced they were shifting to a new approach in which their police dogs would be trained to hold suspects at bay by barking at them, attacking only if the person attacked or tried to flee.

The 1999 policy change came six weeks after the FBI opened an investigation into whether the county canine unit was engaging in a pattern of excessive force.

That investigation led to the 2001 conviction in federal court of former canine officer Stephanie C. Mohr. A jury convicted Mohr of a federal civil rights violation for releasing her canine on an unarmed, unresisting homeless man who was surrounded by pistol-wielding police officers. Mohr is serving a 10-year prison sentence.