Chief responds to dog shooting, promises policy review
on October 1, 2010
Oakland police officials said that the department would be reviewing its policies after a routine call to an Oakland home resulted in the shooting death of a dog—the second shooting in five months involving animals.
The incident happened Tuesday when officers responded to a burglar alarm at a house on the 9000 block of Burgos Avenue in the Oakland hills. One of the officers, while checking the house for suspects, encountered a Labrador coming out the rear door, and shot and killed the pet.
The dog, according to an OPD statement released today, was growling and approaching the officer. The officer fired three rounds at the dog with at least one bullet hitting it in the head.
“It is an unfortunate incident when you have a family pet protecting its home and officers responding to protect the property,” Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts said in the statement. “The end result is not something we wanted and my heart goes out to the family who has lost their dog.”
“We are investigating the incident to ensure that proper policies and procedures were followed and evaluating possible ways to improve outcomes related to future contacts with animals,” continued Batts.
In May, Oakland police officers shot and killed a deer that had leaped over a fence into a backyard of a home in East Oakland. The incident, which was captured on video by a neighbor, caused an uproar among residents and wildlife activists.
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That is all Batts has to say? Lousy response.
how come oakland cops are responding to alarms up in the hills and shooting dogs when they just released a list of everything they won’t respond to, including burglary?
Stuff like this makes police officers either look like bumbling idiots or people on a power trip.
I would certainly think twice about having a partner like this on patrol with me – He/She either has remarkably poor judgment, or is afraid of his own shadow. In any case he needs to be taken of the front-line and reassigned to a position less critical to the public good. He’s if not a menace to his fellow officers, he certainly a menace to public perception of police officers everywhere.