By Sarah Calams
Police1
LOS ANGELES — On Monday, a bill that would ban the use of police K-9s for arrests and crowd control was introduced at the California State Assembly.
Assembly Bill 742 would “prohibit law enforcement agencies from authorizing any use or training of a police canine that is inconsistent with the bill,” the bill’s text says.
The bill breaks down banned circumstances surrounding K-9s, including:
- The use of K-9s for arrests, apprehension or crowd control
- No LEOs using an unleashed K-9 to arrest or apprehend a person, and
- No K-9s will be used in any circumstance to bite.
“A law enforcement agency shall not authorize any use or training of a police canine that is inconsistent with this section,” the text reads. “This section shall not be interpreted as to prevent the use of police canines by law enforcement for purposes of search and rescue, explosives detection and narcotics detection that do not involve biting.”
Ron Cloward, a retired Modesto (Calif.) PD lieutenant and current president of the Western States Police Canine Association, told KCRA.com that the bill “makes no sense.”
“It’s a tool and it’s something that, if we take it away, you’re just eliminating one more non-lethal weapon for law enforcement,” Cloward said.