AN EXAMINATION OF POLICE CANINE USE OF FORCE IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA

The use of force with police dogs has caught the attention of both the media and the federal government, specifically the Department of Justice (DOJ). Recently, the Department of Justice has begun recommending sweeping changes for agencies that are under review for civil rights violations. The D.O.J. recommendation of interest to this study is the paradigmatic shift from “bite and hold ” to “bark and hold ” in canine apprehension methods. As there is no prior literature to base this decision upon, the question remains, will this reduce the number of suspect bitten by police dogs? This work attempts to answer this question by asking canine handlers to reveal their bite ratios through a traditional method and through an innovative matrix (Bite Ratio Data Collector), which then become the force measurement. Individual, organizational, situational and iv training variables are added to the linear regression model to identify correlates of canine force. The survey was distributed to 334 canine handlers (comprising a census) in the State of Florida. Of those, 181 (52%) responded providing not only demographic information on themselves and their agencies but for their canine partners as well. The results from Chapter 4 denote a number of findings. First, measurement differences were obvious between traditional reporting and the Bite Ratio Data Collector. Simply asking handlers to provide bite ratios tends to underestimate the actual amount of canine force. Second, handlers with “bark and hold ” trained canines reported higher bite ratios than handlers with “bite and hold ” trained dogs. Finally, additional factors such a