Deployment of Violence: The Los Angeles Police Department's Use of Dogs

In this article, the authors address empirically the relationship between the racial composition of areas patrolled by police and the use of police dogs to apprehend suspects. The authors find that even after controlling forfactors that police claim determine the allocation of canine patrols, dogs are disproportionately employed in areas with higher proportions of minority residents. Moreover, when more dogs are deployed, there are citizens bitten, often severely. 1